Tackling the legislative underrepresentation of women in Ghana: Empowerment strategies for broader gender parity

Abstract

The question of women's legislative underrepresentation is an enduring problem which continues to garner considerable scholarly attention all over the world. Whereas the burgeoning literature on the subject has largely focused on impediments to gender parity in representation in parliament, the interest of this paper is somewhat different. In an effort to make an original contribution to the discourse, the starting point of this paper is the argument that women can be politically empowered to achieve greater representation in parliament. Consequently, in this paper – which draws on empowerment theory as theoretical lens – we present a snapshot of the views of 22 women parliamentarians from Ghana, with the aim to exploring empowerment strategies for attaining greater gender parity in representation in the legislature. They emphasize the importance of affirmative action policies, funding, inclusive political party structures, education, and societal re-socialisation in addressing women's legislative underrepresentation in Ghana. These findings may have some important implications for the nature and scope of interventions targeted at women for the purpose of promoting an inclusive political environment.