Paper short abstract:

Given the continued stifling reality where women voices are suppressed by dominant male voices with the privilege of better education, it is vital, therefore, for women to receive the same type and quality of education to enable them to compete on equal footing with men in legislative deliberations.

Paper long abstract:

For years, women's access to and consumption of quality education has been the outcry of the feminist movement and modern-day development initiatives like the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. Even with progress like the introduction of free elementary and secondary education, the gender gap widens at a higher level of education (tertiary levels), a situation evident in Uganda. More men tend to achieve higher educational qualifications compared to the women. This study, therefore, aimed to establish the implications of these inequalities in educational access and consumption by women and its impact on their deliberative and legislative capabilities. By employing a phenomenological qualitative research design, one on one interviews were carried out with 14 long serving Ugandan parliamentarians (10 women and four men) to identify their perspectives on the influence of women's educational achievement on their voices during legislative deliberations in parliament. Findings revealed that education as a whole and most importantly higher levels of tertiary education had a significant influence on the voices of women legislators. The study concluded therefore that since the minimum educational requirements for a member of parliament in Uganda was an A' Level secondary school certificate, there was a need for a revision of this policy and provision of more facilities to enhance women's voices through increasing their educational achievements.

Paper short abstract:

Visibility of Women politicians in the media contests male norm of politics and encourages more women into politics.Yet, media coverage show gender biases depicting low visibility and mainly negative portrayals.How do women politicians contribute to their own media representations in the news?

Paper long abstract:

Women politicians have long been marginalised in the political arena, aided in part by gender roles which prescribe what a woman can and cannot do, and patriarchal systems which establish, reinforce and sustain these roles. Increasing the visibility of women politicians is therefore a form of contestation against these socio-cultural structures. It breaks the male norm of politics while serving as a reference point to encourage more women into politics. However, studies on media coverage of women politicians point to gender biases that favour men politicians in both quantity and quality of coverage. Media visibility thus seem to be proving to be yet another space in which women politicians are marginalised.

Using feminist media theory and the Hierarchy of Influence model (Shoemaker and Reese, 1996; 2014), the paper takes a critical look at the production process of news coverage on women politicians. It asks: what factors shape political news selection, coverage and content production, and what contributions do women politicians make to this process? Focusing on Ghana and Nigeria, the paper analyses interviews with both news workers and women politicians. It argues that while the media are partly complicit in biases against women politicians in the news, women politicians themselves, by their actions and inactions also contribute to their near invisibility and negative portrayal in the media. The paper also reveals strategies adopted by some women politicians to gain media presence and offers insights on how women politicians can push through the boundaries of media biases to establish themselves as strong political contenders in the media space.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the way in which women are legitimated in Zimbabwean politics and the patriarchal discourses surrounding these women. It argues that women in politics exist in a paradoxical and dichotomous existence characterised by stereotypical imagery and perceptions of femininity.

Paper long abstract:

Zimbabwe's political history has not been kind to women. Since the City Youth League bus boycotts of the 1950s in colonial Salisbury Rhodesia to the post-independence period, women in politics have been placed in the paradoxical and dichotomous existence of being stereotypically labelled as 'immoral prostitutes' on the one hand, and 'virtuous mothers' on the other. In examining the paradoxes and dichotomies pertaining to women in politics, this paper will bring into focus the social and cultural factors which both reinforce and perpetuate this political discourse on women and in so doing unravel other contextual paradoxes which have come to define the way in which we think about African societies as simultaneously inhabiting both tradition and modernity, as well as the sacred (religion) and the secular (politics). The paper will employ post-colonial theorist, Homi Bhabha's, influential concept of hybridity. The paper is based on ethnographic material obtained in the capital city of Harare in 2017 and 2018, consisting of participant observation, in-depth interviews with female parliamentarians and aspiring politicians, as well as focus group research.

This paper aims to critically examine the ways in which women are legitimated in politics and the gendered discourses that surround women in politics.

Paper short abstract:

The female circumcision struggle brought together three groups, all arguably patriarchal - the local nationalist movement, the colonial state, and Christian missionaries - in a head-on confrontation mainly for political legitimacy, in which women and their sexuality became the battleground.

Paper long abstract:

MALE CONCORDANCE AND BODY POLITICS: A RE-INTERPRETATION OF THE 1929-32 FEMALE CIRCUMCISION CONTROVERSY IN KENYA

Jane Wambui, University of Nairobi, Kenya

This paper analyses the extent to which female circumcision in Kenya, an act of violence against women, was transformed into a site of gendered racialized struggle. The female circumcision struggle brought together three groups, all arguably patriarchal - the local nationalist movement, the colonial state, and Christian missionaries - in a head-on confrontation mainly for political legitimacy, in which women and their sexuality became the battleground. The resultant compromise on the part of the men involved demonstrates a form of concordance between separate male groups that had different reasons for accommodating female circumcision. As is often the case, the debate concerning female circumcision was less about the women concerned but more about the appropriation of women as political symbols. In other words, the controversy demonstrates the use of women as ammunition in a polemic of central concern to their lives, but where the issue at stake is not the women's own interests but, rather, the consolidation of the powers of others to define those interests. The paper shows how the politicization of issues concerning women often leads to the disappearance of women as subjects, leaving control over decisions regarding women's bodies and sexuality in men's hands. In this process, women's and gender issues are generally trumped by patriarchal, nationalist and/or capitalist concerns.

Paper short abstract:

Our study shows that the internet represents a continuum area of vulnerability for women, low/ class users and sexual minorities. It is a source of pleasure firstly for relatively well educated men and deepens gender and sexual inequalities.

Paper long abstract:

The use of the internet is deeply rooted in Cameroonians daily habits, especially the under 30s. This openness to the world is not without consequences on collective and individual development, including on sexual life. "Wild Pepper", "sofa party", "fuck between guys", are few illustrative names of whatsapp and facebook groups available online in Cameroon. In a context where sexuality remains extremely framed by law, tradition and religious norms, the internet appears as an unexpected opened door for people who want to enjoy their sexuality freely. It is also a mirror that allows to understand sociological transformations related to gender, sexuality, power, political participation, etc. We have undertaken an ethnographic-type of survey in two major cities (Yaounde and Douala). "The Kiss survey" from October 2017 to March 2018 consisted in standardized questionnaires, online observations and chat, and interviews with internet users over 18 living in Cameroon and sexually active. Our results show that the internet does not sexually impact men, women and sexual and gender groups in the same way. The Internet represents a continuum area of vulnerability for women, low/rural class users and sexual minorities. It is a source of pleasure firstly for relatively well educated men, it favors confusion with traditional sexual benchmarks and deepens gender and sexual inequalities. A real political shift is however able to change the social and economic environment for gender and sexual minorities.