Towards realistic strategies for women’s political empowerment in Africa
Overview
Current NGO and development agency strategies to support women’s political empowerment are based on two assumptions: firstly, that women’s increased access to resources, especially education, will lead to their increased representation in political positions; and secondly, that governments are genuinely committed to leading national programmes of action for women’s advancement. Both of these assumptions are seriously mistaken. All development organisations supporting women’s empowerment must recognise the true obstacles women face in gaining political power, and develop programme strategies to overcome them. In addition to focusing on the need to get women into government, NGOs could also usefully support women’s organisations that are engaging in direct action – a key strategy which enables women to push for policy changes from outside government.
This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis. For the full table of contents for this and previous issues of this journal, please visit the Gender and Development website.
Additional details
Author(s)
How to cite this resource
Citation styles vary so we recommend you check what is appropriate for your context. You may choose to cite Oxfam resources as follows:
Author(s)/Editor(s). (Year of publication). Title and sub-title. Place of publication: name of publisher. DOI (where available). URL
Our FAQs page has some examples of this approach.