Women Cabinet Ministers’ Substantive Representation in Africa

Abstract Research on women executives’ substantive representation is currently drawing serious attention given women’s increasing inclusion in cabinets globally. However, these studies rarely question whether women ministers across Africa represent women’s interests. Using primary semi-structured interview data conducted with forty-nine interviewees, including seventeen ministers in Nigeria and South Africa, this article explores whether women politicians advocate for women’s interests. It centers a critical understanding of the cabinet as an embedded institution, embraces a context-specific understanding of substantive representation, and demonstrates that women ministers’ representation of women’s interests occurs mostly in nonlegislative ways. It presents an expansive three-level conception of substantive representation.