Women, quotas, and affirmative action policies in Africa

Abstract

This chapter focuses on gender quotas as affirmative action policies in Africa. It examines the various debates on affirmative action and analyses the arguments in favor of and against its adoption. It establishes that trends in women's descriptive or numerical representation in parliament differ across countries on the African continent as a result of the differences in perception of states on the need to integrate affirmative action into the political discourse. The adoption of affirmative action policies has brought about significant increases for women on the political terrain, with women's representation in parliament rising above 30 percent in some Eastern and Southern countries of Africa, followed by countries in West and Central Africa, and then North Africa. The chapter concludes that though some African countries including Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda, among others, have the world's highest rates of representation in parliament as a result of the adoption of affirmative action policies, there is still a long way to go on the continent, and progress is slow as a result of the unfavorable disposition of many countries to women's descriptive representation. Additionally, beyond descriptive representation, progress needs to be made on substantive representation so as to be able to translate the gains of the increase into changing the status and lives of women. The chapter recommends that African states that have laws that stipulate specific quotas for women should establish agencies specifically assigned to scrutinize as well as monitor the implementation of affirmative action by political parties and other institutions, among others.