Abstract
Marriage and divorce are factors that impact female leadership in Africa. Women are defined by their roles as wives and mothers and less as leaders. There is a dearth of research on the influence of marriage and divorce on female leadership in Africa. Most studies have focused on the societal importance of marriage and the negative effects of divorce on families. Using Wangarĩ Maathai’s biography Unbowed, this paper explores the role of marriage and divorce and their intersection with Maathai’s leadership. To enrich the analysis, I introduce insights from Naleli Morojele’s study of Rwandan and South African female political leaders. African feminist thought, transformative leadership theory, and African concepts of marriage and divorce form the theoretical framework. The main findings indicate that Maathai’s leadership is transformative. African feminism recognizes the role of men in women’s equality. Female leadership has increased in Africa, though it contends with socio-cultural attitudes and colonial legacies that fuel its skepticism. Marriage is a duty and the focus of existence in African thought and divorce is synonymous with failure. Women’s disunity on gender issues is problematic. Female leadership is very demanding and costly to family relationships. These findings are important in identifying gaps between policy and social attitudes on female leadership in Africa.
Highlights
The terms “Black”, “female”, and “divorce” underlie the social constructions that are applied to race, gender, and family transition, respectively
Ngunjiri [33], Kenya-born Professor of Ethics and Leadership, concurs: “It is quite clear from this short discussion of divorce in Kenya that research is needed to better understand the issues surrounding women’s roles, marital relationships, divorce, and leadership in Kenya and quite possibly in other subSaharan African countries as well, because I could not find literature dealing directly with divorce and the status of women and their ability to be effective credible leaders” (p. 210). To fill this literature gap, this paper aims to explore the role of marriage and divorce and their intersection with Maathai’s leadership
I discuss the intersection of gender, leadership, and culture and the estrangement presented by divorce for Black African women
Summary
The terms “Black”, “female”, and “divorce” underlie the social constructions that are applied to race, gender, and family transition, respectively. The disintegration of the strong African family system that regulated significant issues, such as marriage, and discouraged divorce fell apart with colonialism, as Chinua Achebe [19] demonstrates in his classic Things Fall Apart These historical events should not be taken as excuses by African leadership to evade responsibility for gender equity and human rights. Most scholarship has centered around the gender and feministic dimensions of her activism, and rightly so While these core aspects cannot be omitted when discoursing Maathai’s achievements, less literature has concretely explored how marital status and marriage as an institution impacted her activism and leadership. I discuss the intersection of gender, leadership, and culture and the estrangement presented by divorce for Black African women. The Benedictine College, formerly Mount Scholastica College, in the United States, where Maathai studied, unveiled a statue in her honor in 2014 [39]
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