‘Let there be a Balance’: Women in African Parliaments

Abstract

It has been 25 years since the National Resistance Movement took power in Uganda and ushered in an era of women's increased presence in African legislatures – at first in east and southern Africa and eventually beyond. In 2008, Uganda's neighbor Rwanda became the first country in the world to have more women than men in a chamber of parliament. In mid‐2012, eight African countries were among the top 30 countries worldwide in terms of women's presence in a single or lower house of parliament. Across the continent one country after another has taken measures to increase women's presence in the national legislature. This article provides an update on these developments within sub‐Saharan Africa. In particular, the article seeks to evaluate women's descriptive, substantive and symbolic representation in African parliaments in the last quarter‐century by reviewing a growing literature. Despite the remarkable gains that have been made by women in national legislatures across the continent, Africa's accomplishments in this arena are little known – in contrast to those from other parts of the world. This article, in surveying and synthesizing the literature, seeks also to make those accomplishments better known.

Women’s Political Engagement Under Quota-Mandated Female Representation

“…However, several case studies have detailed the largely positive symbolic effects following the rapid proliferation of gender quotas across African countries. These studies have documented how quotas have changed political cultures to be more inclusive of women's perspectives and how quotas may legitimize women's presence in nontraditional spheres more broadly (see Bauer, 2012, for a review). For instance, using over a decade of ethnographic research to examine the impact of the highly lauded Rwandan gender quota, Burnet (2011) notes that measuring women's political engagement in an increasingly authoritarian state proves difficult, but that "gender quotas and the increased representation of women in the political system have encouraged women to take leading roles in other areas of Rwandan society" (p. 315).…”

Electoral Gender Quotas and Attitudes Toward Traditional Leaders: A Policy Experiment in Lesotho

“…The gender quota literature concerning the extent to which the de jure power of quota recipients has translated into de facto power has for the most part examined parliamentary politics (see Bauer [] for a review on African experiences). With a few notable exceptions, quotas that reserve parliamentary seats for women are often criticized for creating an additional vote bank for ruling parties without allowing quota recipients actual decisionmaking authority (see, for instance, Panday [] on Bangladesh, Meena [] on Tanzania, & Longman [2006] on Rwanda).…”

Direct Democracy and Women's Political Engagement

“…Extending this argument, studies have explored how political institutions that promote women's descriptive representation affect women's political participation. Notably, a growing body of work finds that the introduction of electoral gender quotas signals the system's inclusiveness to women's perspectives, legitimizes women's presence in the political process, and consequently motivates women to engage in politics at a greater rate (Bauer ; Bhavnani ; Kittilson and Schwindt‐Bayer ). More recently, Skorge () finds that proportional representation (PR) systems have positive impacts on women's electoral participation using the exogenous change in electoral institutions in early twentieth‐century Norway.…”