ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a window through which to obtain an initial peek into the world of Ugandan women politicians, raising the curtain on the larger study of the dynamics of the process of Ugandan women's engagement with formal politics. The five life histories illustrate the micropolitical dynamics and the role of individuality in the contemporary politics of Uganda. They provide useful demonstrations of different styles and strategies women politicians employ to resist male dominance and to empower themselves in the face of patriarchy and underdevelopment. By focusing on five individual women, the chapter illuminates the differences among and between female politicians, highlighting the complex processes within which gender and other forms of social inequality are created, manipulated, and incorporated into individual identities. Regardless of the woman's socioeconomic class, religious-cultural background, ethnicity, or other personal proclivities, there is one common component—gender—that relegates all of them to a secondary status in the realm of politics.
