Women’s Political Representation in Africa
Women’s Political Representation in Africa
复制标题
非洲妇女的政治代表权
作者：
Gretchen Bauer
在世纪初，非洲妇女在议会中的代表性是世界领先的，在内阁和法院中的代表性也是世界平均水平。这些趋势起源于20世纪80年代末和90年代初席卷非洲大陆的政治转型，有些人称之为非洲的第二次独立。在整个非洲，许多国家在20世纪50年代末首次赢得了政治独立，但在20世纪70年代，80年代和90年代，其他国家甚至更晚。在许多国家，一党统治和军事政权在独立的最初几年迅速出现，而在那些尚未独立的国家，武装斗争往往是实现解放所必需的。虽然非洲妇女在整个非洲大陆的前殖民和殖民时代以及争取独立的民族主义运动中发挥了重要的政治作用，但在1960年代、1970年代和1980年代的一党制和军事政权中，她们的机会要少得多。但是，妇女及其组织往往站在1990年代开始的困扰非洲的政治过渡的最前沿，并从那时起开始在正式政治中重新获得代表权。研究和奖学金也随之而来，从20世纪90年代开始，出现了关于非洲妇女在立法机构、内阁和法院以及正式政府办公室以外的妇女运动中的政治代表性的重要文献。作者要感谢阿马拉伽利略宝贵的研究援助。
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.