Gender Inequality in the Solomon Islands: Basis for Reforms on Women’s Empowerment and Development

This study aims to explore the gender inequality in the Solomon Islands. Despite decades of advocacy, legislation, and international commitment, a systemic gap persists between policy reforms and women's lived realities. Deep-seated cultural traditions, institutional structures, and socio-economic systems continue to place men in positions of greater authority and privilege. This persistent marginalization and exclusion from decision-making highlight a core problem. This qualitative study employed the narrative inquiry method. Conducted in Solomon Islands, the participants of this study were six (6) men and women who experienced the phenomenon. A semi-structured interview guide was used to gather data, and narrative inquiry analysis was employed. After the data analysis, the themes that emerged are: in the political domain, Theme 1: Male-dominated decision-making, Theme 2: triple barriers: custom, capital, and conflict, and Theme 3: skewed priorities: absence and the call for structural reform. For the Economics domain, Theme 1: structural segregation: low-margin subsistence vs. high-capital wage, Theme 2: institutional exclusion: land, collateral, and the unrecorded economy, and Theme 3: the unpaid care anchor: the double shift and time poverty. For the Socio-Cultural domain, Theme 1: The primacy of subordination – customary and religious sanction, Theme 2: the enforcement mechanism, gender-based violence and public silence, and Theme 3: agents of change: from hierarchy to shared responsibility. This study is limited to women’s inequality. Future researchers may conduct similar studies using quantitative or mixed methods in other parts of the Pacific region.