Women in executive political leadership in Africa

Abstract

Women's participation in politics is an important aspect of democratization and political transition, especially in Africa. While countries like Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda rank high in global rankings on women representation in parliament, several other African countries like Nigeria rank disappointingly low. This is why women's participation in African politics provides interesting inquiry in democratic studies. This chapter probes into the experiences, challenges, and prospects of women's participation in executive political leadership in Africa. Since many studies have been devoted to women's participation in business, legislatures, civil service, NGOs, and judiciary, there are few studies dedicated to probing women in executive political leadership largely because it is one of the areas in which women's participation in Africa has been the weakest. This chapter identifies attitudinal issues, legal/political frameworks, economic empowerment, and affirmative action as key determinants of women's participation in executive political leadership. The study was carried out using longitudinal qualitative research and comparative case studies of East and West Africa. It generated data from reports, feminist literature, and other online sources which were analyzed using themes. The chapter concludes on the need to have more legislation on quota for women in addition to attitudinal change and economic empowerment to enable women's access to executive political leadership in Africa.