A study of female parliamentarian's perception of their political influence in the Namibian parliament: A case study of the National Assembly.
This study aimed to examine how once inside parliament, women perceive their ability to influence the political agenda in a male dominated institution. Often, the experiences of the female parliamentarians are told by a second or third party such as the media who tell the women’s stories from the perspective of the media. The thesis focuses on the female Parliamentarians’ perceptions of their political influence in the Namibian National Assembly. Various players internationally and regionally have fought and continue fighting to find ways of getting more women into parliament. However what has not taken place in earnest is a discussion on how women fare once inside parliament, a male dominated institution. Media reports in 2010 and 2011 reported on how the female parliamentarians were failing in their parliamentary duties by not speaking out. This damning evidence came about as a result of a research that analysed the amount of contributions that members of the National Assembly made to parliamentary debate. Using the qualitative research method and face-to-face structured interviews with the Parliamentarians, the findings revealed that twenty two years after independence and having what is considered to be a good gender policy in Southern Africa, female Parliamentarians in addition to facing various challenges including gender-based power imbalance also remain under-represented. A major finding is that despite the challenges, female Parliamentarians perceive themselves to have a high level of political influence. Participants felt that the attitude of political parties regarding women’s role in parliament was critical in facilitating their influence on the political agenda. This study intends to contribute to the local gender and political discourse and knowledge by documenting the voices of female parliamentarians as they express their views and opinions on public issues that affect their everyday political experiences.
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