But history was made in Samoa after elections last year, when Fiame Naomi Mata'afa was sworn in as her country's first female deputy prime minister.
And two months earlier in Marshall Islands, Hilda Heine was sworn in as her country's first female president, and the first woman to serve as head of state in any independent Pacific Island nation.
According to Radio Australia, President Heine says she hopes her success story is a catalyst for Pacific Islanders to pinpoint the underlying causes of inequality in their communities that often hold women back.
