ABSTRACT
The countries in sub-Saharan Africa are relatively new. They became independent after the late 1950s following the independence of Ghana (1957) and Guinea (1958), respectively. Only Liberia and Ethiopia were spared from the European colonialism in Africa. During the colonial rule, women in many African countries played an active role in the liberation struggle, but their contribution to the liberation struggle did not bring a gender balance in new governments. Women were absent in political decision-making positions at the time of independence and have remained under-represented since then. Today there is no female head of state in Africa. There is only one female Prime Minister (Maria das Neves Batista de Sousa in São Tomé and Príncipe), one female vice president (Isatou Njie-Saidy in The Gambia), and five female presidents of assemblies (Frene Ginwala and Naledi Pandor in South Africa, Mulatu Toshome in Ethiopia, Grace Beatrice Minor in Liberia, and Ntlhoboi Motsamai in Lesotho). They occupy only 14.1 per cent of single-house or lower-house seats (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2003). In the executive, women accounted for 15.4 per cent of ministerial and vice ministerial positions in 2000 (United Nations Development Program 2003). The marginalisation of women in politics today can be traced back to the colonial period. Women in pre-colonial African societies by no means had equal rights with men, but they exercised political and economic rights of their own. In some pre-colonial societies, women held high political positions although men usually occupied top positions (Parpart 1988, p. 209; Foster 1993, p.104). They also had control over economic resources (e.g., access to the land, budgetary independence within the household, trade, etc.) (Waylen 1996, p.51). European colonialism, however, took away these rights. Women who held political positions in pre-colonial societies lost their positions when colonial powers recognized men as chiefs or intermediaries to meet their administrative needs. The exclusion of women in the political domain was solidified by the colonial education that taught skills and European languages mostly to boys to fill low-level administrative positions (Waylen 1996, p.62). Because of these colonial practices, women virtually had no participation in the colonial administration and at the time of independence, males who received higher education during colonialism and had experience in the colonial administration took government positions in most
countries (Parpart 1988, p.214; Foster 1993, p.107). Women were further marginalized by customary laws the colonial powers introduced to ‘govern personal matters of Africans’ (Cawthorne 1999, p.63). For example, in pre-colonial Africa, the land was communally owned. When colonial powers individualized property rights, men generally got the land titles (Parpart 1988, p.211; Waylen 1996, p.57). Customary laws also regarded women as minors under the authority of males (Foster 1993, p.106; Cawthorne 1999, p.66). As a result of these laws, women in many African countries still cannot own and inherit the land, travel without the permission of their husbands, have legal guardianship of their children, enter into contracts, and obtain bank loans (Geisler 1995, p.547; Cawthorne 1999, p.66). Given that laws are enacted and repealed in the legislature, women’s under-representation in African parliaments warrants some serious concern. Although women’s parliamentary representation has increased over time since their first entry into the legislature, the severe gender gap has remained. The recent political change toward democracy in Africa that began in the early 1990s generated some optimism for greater women’s legislative representation, but failed to deliver the expected outcome and instead lowered their representation (Yoon 2001a, p.177). Of 43 sub-Saharan African countries examined in this study, only Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sudan have federal systems. Presidentialism is the most common form of political system with 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa practicing this type of system; five countries have parliamentary systems, and one has a monarchy in which the king exercises executive and legislative power. Except for Uganda and Swaziland, each of which has a ‘no party’ system, all other countries have multiparty systems although only one or two parties tend to occupy an overwhelming majority of parliamentary seats (Yoon 2001b). For legislative elections, 13 countries use proportional representation systems, 21 use majority or plurality systems, and eight use mixed systems. This study examines women’s legislative representation in this context. This chapter is a general overview of women’s legislative representation in sub-Saharan Africa. After the introduction come historical facts about women’s legislative representation. This part examines whether women’s legislative representation has improved since their first entry into the legislature. Next is a discussion on the barriers to women’s parliamentary representation to understand the persistent under-representation of women in parliament despite some improvement over the years. With the recent democratization, gender inequality in politics has received much attention. Therefore, the following section examines what efforts have been made in sub-Saharan Africa to increase women’s political representation. As Table 7.1 shows, women in some countries occupy a significant portion of parliamentary seats. Does a critical mass of women in parliament make a difference in the lives of women? The remaining part of the chapter, therefore, turns to this question by focusing on the impact of women’s parliamentary representation on legislative outcomes in Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
