ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with gender and Guinea’s historical trajectories. It describes the main phases of women’s political participation in Guinea from the pre-colonial times until 2007. It focuses on how women impacted on state-building efforts in pre-colonial times and how the colonial state diminished women’s influence as it separated the domestic from the political sphere. Women in Guinea had started getting involved in political parties in the time before the country’s independence in 1958. Guinea’s first President, Ahmed Sékou Touré, who ruled between 1958 and 1984, made special appeals to women by raising issues concerning health care, women’s education, and sanitation. However, within Touré’s dictatorial system, women had to follow the party’s agenda, and dissident voices were not welcome. Women were among the rare voices to oppose Touré’s regime, at the so-called women’s protest in 1977. During the rule of General Lansana Conté (1984–2008), women were not put on centre stage. It was only when the country was paralysed by nationwide general strikes in 2006 and 2007 that women publicly protested against the difficult living conditions they faced.
