Dear Editor,

I refer to your street talk asking if Samoa is ready for more women in Parliament.

You are asking the wrong question. It’s like me asking you, are women ready to walk? They have been ready since the dawn of time but outdated traditions of all cultures have always put women down. 

Men have always traditionally feared their authority being challenged and the fact that women have always been ready to challenge that authority is a sore point with many male dominated societies. 

The fact that you are now, as a female journalist, asking that question is unbelievable. 

Can’t you frame the question to focus on men’s shortcomings of not accepting women as equals in everything? 

Why not ask, are men ready to let go of that fear of women being equal? 

Isn’t that a more appropriate question? 

By asking whether women are ready indicates to me that, at some stage according to you, women were not ready. 

Women have always been equal and ready but society never let them. 

So how about asking if men are ready to let go of that fear of being challenged by a woman? Manuia le weekend.

D.F.G

Samoa