“We Are So Happy EPF Came”: Transformations of Gender in Port Moresby Schools

Abstract

In this article, we examine the work of Equal Playing Field (EPF), an organization that introduces ideas of gender equity to students in schools in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG). Drawing on interviews with students, teachers, and EPF staff and volunteers, we demonstrate that the design and implementation of the EPF program is derived from Western liberal ideas of gender difference and the desirability of an educational environment that removes gender discrimination. Without discounting the challenges of upholding these ideas and practices in Port Moresby schools, we argue that they have gained traction among students and teachers and that the potential long-term benefits of this arguably outweigh the risks and challenges entailed. Demonstrating that programs such as those run by EPF are no longer instances of external donors imposing foreign agendas for social change on uninformed or unwilling recipients, we place under scrutiny notions that the appeal to human rights is inappropriate, irrelevant, or necessarily alien in the context of urban life in PNG. Instead, we suggest that, as with other programs that promote human rights awareness in PNG, the problem for such educational projects is that they assume support services and practical solutions that simply do not exist.