Women and representative bureaucracy in Zambia: The case of gender-balancing in the civil service and para-statal organizations

Abstract

In this paper the author discusses the position of women in the Zambian civil service and para-statal organisations, and reasons for their under-representation. Among other things, prevailing sociocultural norms, contradictory policies, and laws with regard to employment of women generally, the relatively weak impact exerted by women's groups on employment policies, tokenism, and historical imbalances in educational opportunities with regard to the genders are identified as some of the contributing factors to the under-representation of women in the Zambian public sector. While unique in itself, the Zambian case may well be representative of other countries in sub-Saharan Africa with regard to the under-representation of women in public administration. This problem is compounded further by the state of underdevelopment which haunts many third world countries, and retards their efforts in addressing the issue of gender balancing in the employment sector.