Abstract
While the use of affirmative action to increase women’s political participation in societies where socio-cultural factors militate against women’s political interests, popular measures do not go beyond quota systems. This paper therefore examines the ideological, programmatic and socio-cultural impacts of affirmative action on women’s political participation in the Frafra traditional area of Ghana, using a qualitative research approach. Results indicated that ideologically, affirmative action is perceived as policies and strategies that aim at the protection of the interests of women’s interest in politics. Programmatically affirmative action programmes such as capacity building and mentoring of women for participation in political leadership were found to be based on existing policies. Socio-cultural factors were found to be a major impediment to affirmative action programmes for the promotion of women’s political participation. Hence, it was concluded that the use of affirmative action for the promotion of women’s political inclusion would remain ineffective unless the socio-cultural factors that undermine them are addressed. Keywords : Affirmative Action, Women’s Political Inclusion, Frafra Traditional Area
Highlights
Gender issues are of concern in development and are often incorporated into national development plans and international treaties such as the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), the Millennium Development Goals (Bukari, 2009) and the Sustainable Development Goals
These fall short of International Union of Local Authorities’ (IULA) provision, that no gender group should have less than 40 percent or more than 60 percent representation in local level political positions (Ballington, 2004)
Cultural Factors Associated with Marriage and their Effects on Women’s Political Participation Respondents recognised that the cultural factors that limit women’s political participation begin from the household level
Summary
Gender issues are of concern in development and are often incorporated into national development plans and international treaties such as the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), the Millennium Development Goals (Bukari, 2009) and the Sustainable Development Goals. In Africa, women occupied 23% of parliamentary seats in 2015 (Regional Parliamentary Assemblies, 2015), while in Ghana, of the 133 women who contested in the 2012 parliamentary elections, only 28.8% won, who constituted only 10.5% of the 275 total parliamentary seats (Akpah, 2013; Ghana News Agency, 2013). These fall short of International Union of Local Authorities’ (IULA) provision, that no gender group should have less than 40 percent or more than 60 percent representation in local level political positions (Ballington, 2004).
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