Abstract
This edited book is an outcome of a two-day workshop ‘Gendered Institutions and Women’s Political Representation in Africa’ held at Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden on 12–13 December 2018.
Africa is considered the least developed continent in the world and is trying to overcome the social, economic and political hurdles while maintaining its cultural diversities. One of the main dimensions of the transition to democracy is the inclusion of gender equality in the development process. Many feminist activists and academics have been campaigning for structural and institutional changes in the states to promote gender equality. As a result, several countries in Africa have adopted legislative measures to increase the representation of women in politics recently. When it comes to women’s political representation, the African continent is cited as a success story globally where more than half of African countries give some form of quota to women in political representation and Rwanda at 68% is the highest in the world.
This book examines the intricate interactions between formal and informal institutions in several African case studies as well as the processes of gendering institutions. A total of eight case studies from eight African countries Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe) are there. Some of these have better political representation of women while some are not doing well. The book uses a gender lens, a feminist institutionalist lens to evaluate and criticise the state policies of gender inclusion. It points out that why and how is there a need to adjust and adapt ‘feminist institutionalism’ to Local African realities because African conceptualisations of power, feminism and institutions are different from the West. The book explores that how some African concepts such as ‘Femocracy’ and the ‘First-Lady Syndrome’ and the ‘Politics of Insults, Ridicule and Rumours’ are working against more women in politics.
The book talks about some relevant questions such as: How formal and informal institutions are influencing women’s political representation in Africa? Why women’s political representation is skewed? How formal institutions are often shadowed by informal institutions? Based on ‘feminist institutionalism’, this book explores how mere inclusion does not ensure real gender equality. Gender constructions are often biased towards males and thus are intertwined and embedded in all political institutions. Informal rules exist in every society and every so often work against or parallel with formal rules because they try to protect the power structures to maintain the status quo.
The book also explores the ever-increasing roles of women in politics from different countries some are better in gender inclusion and some are not so good. From the case studies it can be said that women have more chances to increase their political participation in post-conflict periods in conflict-driven countries.
Although mere political representation in numbers (descriptive representation) does not bring real change (substantive representation) in society but its should be the first step towards it. Some of countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania which ensure quotas for women and have been a success, but this is not applicable to many other countries, that is there is no automatic linkage between descriptive and substantive representation. For example, author Memusi in her study of the ethnic community Maasai in Kenya elaborates how the introduction of a quota for women in 2010 has not led to any substantial changes in the Maasai community. She advocates to see this through intersecting categories such as gender and ethnicity/gender and age. This is so because gender-biased informal institutions of society working against women’s political representation.
A quota of 30% for women was formally adopted in Tanzania in 1985 and Fourshey and Jaksch found a mixed result. The number of women politicians has gone up, attitudinal change towards women has taken place and some pro-women legislation also got passed but despite this, male dominance in political parties persists. So, there is a need to move ‘beyond numbers and focus be on actual translation in practice. Several of the case studies (Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria) found out that monetarisation of politics and elections including patronage networks or clientelism is a blockade for women’s political representation due to their (often) disadvantaged economic position. Even the selection of female candidates by political parties is biased in elections.
Media in African countries is working more against women in politics, it represents prominent female politicians in a gender-stereotypical light. It creates different binaries such as ‘sinner/saint’, ‘wifehood/motherhood’ ‘the female freak’ and try to prove that women cannot be a good politician and a good wife or good mother at the same time; women cannot be good in office and good at home at the same time. Vocal female politicians are often portrayed as freaky, foul mouth person in media, they are dragged in with rumours around their sexual affairs. Such portrayal harms women’s political participation. Mandiedza Parichi explains the double bind dilemma in Zimbabwe’s politics. Many misogynistic stereotypes are emboldened by media with the double bind to create misleading perceptions in terms of leadership. Media shows women in a light where proverbial ‘catch twenty-two’ syndrome, a ‘lose-lose’ scenario is made. This means women politicians become the victims of a double bind and are bound to fail regardless of the choices they make. Women leaders are perceived as competent or likable, but rarely both.
The research methodology adopted by the authors in this book is more qualitative than quantitative but its robust and good enough to identify informal institutions. Basically, it is more like a political ethnography enriched with qualitative methods such as participant observations, semi-structured interviews, insider-outsider perspective and extensive field research in different localised African contexts over a longer period. Other methodological approaches have been media analyses such as newspaper content analysis.
Traditionally, within feminist institutionalism, the focus has been on the institutional spaces for voicing women’s demands but it is seen that these feminist institutions do not work effectively if gender-sensitive women or femocrats within institutions are not there—especially in weak institutional spaces. Both Gouws and Madsen agree that such institutions do matter though.
Several of the authors in this book (Orisadare, Fourshey and Jaksch and Memusi) are of the opinion that the past, present and future are interlocked. Recovering the past provides an opportunity to understanding the present and regendering the institutions in the future to strengthen women’s political status. Authors are on the same page that the rules and norms imposed by white male colonisers of the West had very little to do with the realities in the African contexts where women played significant roles in governance during pre-colonial times and in the liberation movement. For example, in her chapter on Nigeria, Orisadare underlines how the role of women in Nigeria used to be very important and the ‘seniority’ used to be more important and determining factor than gender. Similar facts are also cited from Kenyan history.
The colonisers introduced European patriarchal perceptions to African countries which put women subordinate to men, confined to four walls of the home do the child rearing and domestic chores in line with Victorian moralities. The feminism evolved in African countries is distinctively different from the West, it is more inclusive and accommodative rather than in line of women versus men or men as enemy. For example, in Kenya, the author highlights how the local culture was hegemonised by British colonisers which converted the local Kenyan culture into male dominated one. Local men were given powers and gradually laws were changed as per male supremacy and women were made subordinate to men. Men were given the power to adjudicate and change the customary laws. Local male chiefs and elders redefined customs to their advantage, in matters of gender roles, sexuality, marriage, divorce, adultery and property rights among others.
In her contribution about South Africa, Amanda Gouws refers to the ‘Femocracy’ and ‘First Lady’ syndrome indicating that elite high-class women based on their personal ties with men and first ladies and their organisations often serve the ruling party. They are used to mobilise the women voters, entertaining and serving at the party rallies. These compliant women politicians serve the male dominance. Madsen identifies a ‘politics of insults, ridicule and rumours’ which silences women’s voices and prevents them to enter in politics in Ghana. She further elaborates how women in politics are portrayed in bad lights by the media. They are labelled and targeted based on their gender and sexuality. They are demeaned as having masculine traits if they are vocal and assertive on gender issues and rights.
Sethunya Tshepho Mosime and Maude Dikobe explain how the three decades of training workshops for women in politics, could not generate satisfactory results of women representations in Botswana and many African countries, because of faulty political structures of nominating women. Such nominations are patriarchal, male dominated. Moreover, nominations of women by political parties miss the intersectional representations. This is why women in politics do not exercise their agency and the power their own. In many countries like Malawi number of women in politics is not increasing in the desired manner because of the unsupportive party environment and lack of clearly written primary election rules, and gendered electoral funding schemes etc.
Politics needs to be more inclusive and attractive for women. If the cultural identity, history and heritage are highlighted and visualised in popular media where the importance of women is well symbolised, it will attract women to politics. Its well pointed out in the chapter on Tanzania’s inspiring revolution by Fourshey.
Monica Adele Orisadare discusses how some of the institutions used to encourage women to participate in decisions both at the household as well as community level in the pre-colonial time in Nigeria but the Victorian style of the colonial period limited the women representation in decision-making, especially in the public sphere. Although she agrees on the point that modern civilian/democratic rule in the post-colonial era is better than military rule in terms of women representation.
Thus, the book is a very good edition of eight case studies from eight different African countries contributed by scholars with detailed and robust research methods. The gender lens used by authors are very fine and relevant. This book opens a lot of avenues for further research.