In the most societies in New Guinea, women did not traditionally participate in the resolution of disputes. And they could not bring actions against men. But when village courts were introduced, women began to go to court to redress offenses against them.
In colonial times, the introduced western-style courts followed Western law, primarily Australian and British common law, not native customary law. After Papua New Guinea became an independent country, those courts remained in place. The lowest of the courts, called local courts, were located in town centres, often far from villages.
In 1973, a new kind of courts was created, called village courts, they were designed to settle local disputes in the villages, using a blend of customary law and western law. In contrast to local courts, magistrates in the villages courts were selected from the pool of traditional and local leaders.
When Richard Scaglion studied changes in village courts from 1977 to 1987, he noticed a shift towards an increased use of these courts by women. A joint study by Scaglion and Rose Whittingham revealed that when women approach the courts, the cases are mostly related to sexrelated offenses (sexual jealousy, rape, incest, domestic disputes) committed by men.
Most disputes in New Guinea villages are settled informally by self-help or by appeal to a "big man"; the courts are appealed to as a last resort. Women do not believe that they can get satisfaction informally. So they go to the village court, where they win some sort of punishment for the defendant in about 60 per cent of the cases, just about the same rate that men achieve when they bring a case seeking punishment.
Women in New Guinea traditionally avoided participating in dispute resolution because :
