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Only a quarter of parliamentary seats in the world are held by women. In Africa, this figure masks a very uneven development with high numbers in countries such as Rwanda (64%) and South Africa (46%). At the other end of the spectrum are Ghana (14%), Botswana (10%) and Nigeria (3%).
Over the past two decades, renewed efforts have been made to promote gender equality in political participation with the hope that more women in parliament would put women’s needs and issues on the political agenda and lead initiatives. policy interventions that promote gender equality.
A new book, Gender institutions and political representation of women in Africa , examines the complex dynamics of formal and informal institutions that influence women’s political representation in eight African countries. In this article, we reflect on South Africa and Ghana.
In South Africa, the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), introduced a 30% quota before the first democratic elections in 1994. In 2009, it changed it to a 50% quota for women. women in parliament. This has not yet been achieved. The country’s parliament is made up of 400 members, 249 of whom belong to the ANC. Other parties do not have quotas for women.
In the case of Ghana, efforts are only now underway to pass a bill through parliament that would allow even participation and representation. Currently, only 14% of the country’s parliamentarians are women.
In both countries, informal institutions – shared norms and unwritten rules – remain stubbornly entrenched and continue to oppose meaningful gender representation. In many cases, these run counter to or parallel with formal institutions.
We conclude that the solution lies in tackling the informal constraints and ensuring the integration of the gender dimension in the political parties themselves in both countries.
The case of Ghana
Ghana was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to introduce a quota for women in parliament. In 1959, he awarded 10 seats to women out of a total of 114. But this initiative ended with the impeachment of Nkrumah in 1966.
Women’s political representation in Ghana has never exceeded the current 14%, with 275 seats in parliament. In 1998, under the regime of Jerry John Rawlings, an administrative directive was adopted. The objective was to endow the National Electoral Commission to encourage all political parties to have more women candidates with a target of at least 40%. It was never implemented.
Since 2011, work on a bill on affirmative action has continued. But, despite rhetorical commitments from the Democratic National Congress and the ruling New Patriotic Party, it has yet to be passed.
A coalition of affirmative action bills has even been formed to achieve this. But a weak national gender mechanism and resistance from some male MPs hampered its adoption.
In addition, there is a wide range of informal institutions that prevent women from gaining power and in the first place.
Women parliamentarians report a toxic environment in which a policy of insults, ridicule and rumors oppose the increase in the number of women in political office. Women are more closely watched than their male counterparts. They are also attacked by political opponents because of their appearance, gender and sexuality. They endure ridiculous comments about their makeup and have often been labeled as prostitutes.
In 2020, the running mate of one of the major political parties, the National Democratic Congress, Naana Jane Opoku-Agyamang, was ridiculed as a “witch” by an influential member of the ruling New Patriotic Party.
Another systemic problem is the cost of running for parliament. A 2018 report showed that the cost of campaigning for parliament increased by 59% between the 2012 and 2016 elections.
The pressure has eased somewhat thanks to a 50% reduction in 2012 in application fees for candidates. But the big expense is the countryside. Dependence on male networks for access to resources also exposes women to rumors that they are providing sexual favors in exchange for financial support.
The case of South Africa
South Africa has put in place a comprehensive set of state structures to promote gender equality. These include an office for the status of women, an empowerment unit within the office of the speaker of parliament, a portfolio committee for monitoring gender equality and an independent commission responsible for gender equality.
But informal institutions and working methods have blunted gender transformation in the country’s parliament.
Three in particular mean that the process of selecting women for political office is influenced by party loyalty.
The first is the “slate policy” which involves a predetermined list of names of candidates to be considered for nomination prior to an election. For example, before the elections, the different factions of the African National Congress (ANC) will have their lists ready with the names of the party’s supporters. It does not necessarily include women in a fair and equitable way. And this has the effect that the representation of women depends on the goodwill of men.
Second, the reorientation of state institutions in a way that undermines their original mandate. For example, the integrated set of institutions that should guarantee gender equality has been replaced by a single ministry with consecutive ministers whose loyalty to the ANC precludes a gender equality agenda.
Finally, women must confront the ANC Women’s League, which organizes women on behalf of the ruling party. The main mechanism by which the league manages to comply is loyalty to the party and through patriarchal negotiations that promote women’s careers in government.
The official institutions of parliament are also not in a position to change this, as the Women’s League sees itself as the guardian of the recruitment and positioning of women.
And now
Adopting quotas is seen as the solution to ensuring women’s representation and political empowerment in countries where women’s representation in parliament is low. Ghana is a good example.
But South Africa’s experience shows that to achieve substantial gains in gender equality, it is necessary to look beyond formal gender equality reforms. Particular attention should be paid to tackling informal institutions that oppose more women in political office, or when they do, they are unable to promote gender equality.
The political parties of both countries are key players. In Ghana, the New Patriotic Party and the Democratic National Congress must distance themselves from the policy of insults, ridicule and rumors. They could also create a fund to support women who run for public office.
The processes of establishing a quota and monitoring electoral mechanisms that give effect to quotas (such as the registration of women on party lists) should be monitored more carefully. And, in South Africa, the ANC needs to put in place more formal and transparent procedures and criteria for the selection of candidates.
In both countries, correcting the lack of representation must start with the parties themselves.
Diana Højlund Madsen is a researcher at the University of the Free State, South Africa.
Amanda Gouws receives funding from the National Research Foundation
By Diana Højlund Madsen, Principal Gender Researcher, Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, Nordic Institute for Africa and
Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science and SARChi Chair in Gender Policy, Stellenbosch University
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