Women’s Political Representation in Africa

In the early 21st century, African women are world leaders in women’s representation in parliaments, and they are at global averages for women’s representation in cabinets and courts. These are trends that have their origins in the political transitions that swept across the African continent beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s—what some have referred to as Africa’s second independence. Across Africa, political independence was first won beginning in the late 1950s in many countries, but even later, in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, in other countries. In many countries, single-party rule and military regimes swiftly ensued in the early years of independence, while in those that were not yet independent, armed struggles were often necessary to achieve liberation. While African women had played significant roles in politics in the precolonial and colonial eras across the continent, and in nationalist movements for independence, they had many fewer opportunities in the single-party and military regimes of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. But women and their organizations were often at the forefront of the political transitions that beset Africa beginning in the 1990s, and from then onward commenced a renewed representation in formal politics. The research and scholarship followed suit, and there has emerged a significant literature on women’s representation in politics in Africa from the 1990s onward—in legislatures, cabinets, and courts, as well as from women’s movements outside of formal government office. The author would like to thank Amara Galileo for valuable research assistance.