Polls Apart: South African Women and the 1999 General Election

Abstract

More than one million more women than men registered to vote in South Africa’s second democratic election in 1999. The election saw 29.8 percent of seats in the national legislature (or 119 out of 400) going to women (up from 27 percent in the previous Parliament and in stark contrast to the less than 3 percent of women parliamentarians prior to 1994). Eight ministers and eight deputy ministers in South Africa’s new Parliament are women. The new cabinet has women in charge of nontraditional portfolios, such as foreign affairs, public service, mineral and energy affairs, communications and land affairs, in addition to health and housing. This doubles the number of female members compared to the previous executive.