Professional Women, Nation-Making, and the Negotiation of Difference at Boarding Schools in Bougainville and Solomon Islands

Abstract

Workplace dynamics and professionalism have been left out of scholarship on the nation-making undertaken by the middle class in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. This article analyses how female teachers at secondary boarding schools challenged conservative ideals about their roles in the workplace. Students and teachers discovered important similarities amongst the significant cultural diversity at each boarding school. These discoveries were a part of their nation-making but were also the means through which they navigated inconsistencies between expectations about the role of women in the workplace and what professional behaviour should entail. Despite pressure to include their motherhood in their professional identities, women could utilise reconciliation practices and shame to assert themselves with male colleagues. The data show students utilising their own interpretation of professionalism to delegitimise violence as a way to exert power over others.