WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION IN AFRICA: POLITICAL VIOLENCE TARGETING WOMEN, POLITICAL PARTIES AND POLICY INTERVENTIONS
My dissertation examines women’s political representation in Africa. While there have been great strides in women’s representation in certain African countries, especially in those countries with a robust gender quota law, women’s inclusion in politics and government has been uneven across the region and though women’s inclusion holds great promise for the advancement of rights, there can also be considerable challenges that arise as women’s presence alters the form, nature, and contents of politics (Beckwith, 2010). My research extends previous research, which has almost exclusively examined this relationship through single case studies. I carry out both cross-sectional analyses exploring all countries in Africa and also a case study of Kenya. My first essay (chapter 2) and second essay (chapter 3) are cross national studies while my third and last essay (chapter 4) is a case study of a women’s rights organization in Kenya. Bringing in a gendered perspective, I explore in my first empirical chapter how women’s representation in parliaments influences political violence targeting women. This has broad implications for policymakers and academics seeking to implement policies, such as gender quotas, aimed at enhancing women’s participation and inclusion in government and politics. My second empirical chapter examines political parties in African countries and how women’s inclusion in the structure of party organizations shapes women’s representation and attainment of leadership positions in government. I argue that political parties are a key component for women’s advancement in politics given their gatekeeping role and centrality in the recruitment and candidate selection process (Kunovich and Paxton, 2005; Pruysers et. al 2017). Focusing on women’s wings and women’s representation in the national executive committee, my research shows that women’s inclusion on the national executive committee is most important for furthering women’s representation in parliaments, while women’s wings had no significant effect. This has important implications for understanding how the structure of parties and women’s inclusion in key decision-making positions can shape women’s advancement in elective office. The third empirical chapter examines the effect of interventions aimed at mitigating political violence targeting women and capacity-building to improve women’s political engagement. With a case study of the Kenyan women’s rights organization CREAW, I explore how effective their various efforts, such as implementation of the Women’s Situation Room, have been on political violence targeting women, women’s representation in county assemblies, and women’s representation on county executive committees. My findings show mixed success, which I attribute to the limited nature of the data at this point, but there does appear to be a positive effect on women’s representation in county executive committees. Given the attention and resources being devoted to various intervention programs, it is important that we continue evaluating both the short-term and long-term effects of such programs and further learning what works best in different contexts.
Women's Political Representation: Africa
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