Women
are notoriously under-represented in government, occupying just 21.9
percent of all elected parliamentary seats worldwide. In the U.S., that number
is even lower, at just 18 percent. The following countries in sub-Saharan
Africa have managed to buck the trend.
They
are including women in politics and creating significant roles for female
politicians through advocacy, quota systems, and citizens’ desire for real
change. Here are the 12 sub-Saharan African countries with the most women
in parliament.
12. Ethiopia – 28%
In Ethiopia’s National Parliament, 28 percent of the seats are
held by women, up from 21.9 percent in 2009 – and up even more
dramatically from the 2.74 percent in 1995. The government has been active
in striving to increase the number of women in legislature to
30-to-50 percent of the house through different measures, and is on track
to achieve this goal by 2020.
11. Burundi – 31%
Female politicians in Burundi make up 31 percent of the country’s parliament,
just meeting the national quota of 30 percent for the lower and upper
houses. However, there are no quotas in place for the other governmental
decision-making bodies, and the country has yet to see a woman in the top three
offices – president, first vice president, or second vice president.
Burundi also struggles with female representation in security
services. Just 2.9 percent of the Burundi National Police and
0.5 percent of the Burundi National Defence Force are women.
10. Cameroon – 31%
The legislative elections in 2013 in Cameroon catapulted an unprecedented
number of women into the National Assembly, bringing the proportion of women to
31 percent, up from 13.8 percent. The significant increase was the
result of internal advocacy efforts in conjunction with U.N. Women’s strategic
plan for gender and elections that was implemented in June 2012.
9. Zimbabwe – 32%
Zimbabwe’s Eighth Parliament has 85 women representatives out of 270 seats.
Following the country’s 2013 elections, Zimbabwe has had a quota system in
place to ensure female representation. At least 60 seats must be held by women
— six from each of the country’s 10 provinces. By contrast, Zimbabwe’s
parliament had just 17 percent of seats occupied by women following the
2008 general elections.
8. Uganda – 35%
Uganda’s parliament has a quota system in place that mandates that at least
one woman representative from each of the country’s 112 districts must hold a seat.
Additionally, two of the 10 representatives of the Uganda People’s Defence
Forces, one of the five youth representatives, one of the five representatives
of persons with disabilities, and one of the five representatives of workers
must be women.
7. Tanzania – 36%
Tanzania has a strict 30 percent minimum quota for women
representatives in its National Assembly, and has surpassed this quota since
its last election. The seats are distributed among women in proportion to the
number of seats won by political parties, but at least 102 of the assembly’s
350 members must be women. According to the Elections Regulations submitted in
2010, “Every Political Party which contests Parliamentary elections may propose
and submit the Commission names of eligible women candidates for nomination of
Members of Parliament for Women Special Seats.”
6. Angola – 37%
Though Angola’s 37 percent representation by women in parliament is
impressive, it is actually down from the 39 percent it enjoyed in 2008.
This was in part due to a new party list system established in 2010 in which
citizens vote for a party instead of individual candidates – in the 2012
election, just five of the nine parties or coalitions had 30 percent women
in their candidate lists, and none had a women at the top (thereby excluding
them from a potential presidential position). Just 8 of the 31 ministerial
positions in the Angolan government are held by women.
5. Mozambique – 39%
Following the 2014 election, 99 of the 250 seats in Mozambique’s Assembly of
the Republic were held by women, as the result of voluntary political party
quotas. FRELIMO, or the Mozambique Liberation Front (from the Portuguese
“Frente de Libertação de Moçambique”), holds 144 of the 250 seats, and has a
self-imposed 40 percent quota for women representatives – thereby bringing
the collective female representation of women in Mozambique up.
4. Senegal – 43%
Before the 2012 elections, women held just 22 percent of seats in
Senegal’s parliament. A law on gender parity, passed in 2010, required all 24
parties and coalitions to put forward equal numbers of men and women on their
candidate lists, accounting from the marked increase. The success of the parity
law on elected positions has already encouraged calls for it to be applied to
other economic sectors, such as agriculture and fisheries.
3. Seychelles – 44%
Since its national parliamentary elections in 2011, Seychelles saw his
proportion of women in parliament spike to 44 percent. Furthermore, its
women’s representation in district administrators positions have increased to
70 percent, up from an already-impressive 67 percent, all without any
enforced legal quotas. While impressive, this statistic is still short of the
SADC (Southern African Development Community) Protocol on Gender and Development’s
2015 deadline on reaching 50 percent women’s representation.
2. South Africa – 45%
Though also just shy of the SADC goal mentioned above, South Africa is
extremely close to gender parity in its national parliament. The relatively
high numbers are largely due to the ruling African National Congress’s (ANC)
50 percent quota – though it should be noted that it has not always abided
by its self-imposed quotas. The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance
(DA), has always been opposed to quotas, and has only a 30 percent female
representation among its seats.
1. Rwanda – 64%
Rwanda not only leads sub-Saharan Africa in regard to female representation
in parliament, but the whole world as well – it is the only country with more
female MPs than male ones. Much of this has to do with the aftermath of the
country’s post-genocide circumstances, in which 70 percent of the
remaining population was female, as well as its adoption of quotas to ensure
women occupied at least 30 percent of seats. But as female representatives
in Rwanda have been able to make significant strides, the population seems
poised to continue to give women leadership positions, and Rwanda can serve as
an example to governments and citizens across the globe.
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