ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that assumption, asserting the particularity of the relationship of women to the state in Africa and consequently the need to study gender-state relations, and other social divisions, in order to understand both the nature of the state and the place of women in it. It is concerned with women's access to the apparatus of the state, the consequences of their underrepresentation in the state, and the mechanisms women have constructed to cope with their slim hold on the levers of power. While some precolonial African societies severely constrained women's political and economic power, many others awarded women clearly defined and accepted political roles which permitted them to wield power despite fairly minimal authority. Colonial development policies focused on men, who were, in the eyes of colony officials, the farmers and producers of Africa. African women were often given the opportunity to prove their mettle as political activists during the nationalist struggles.
