No Shortcuts to Power

Whatever the other shortcomings of representative democracy in the world today, one issue that remains only partially resolved is the political participation and policy impact of one half of the population -- women. This book examines this question in the context of two countries, South Africa and Uganda, which in this regard have accomplished much more than most (including the Western democracies).

How did women achieve some 30% representation in both national and local political institutions in these countries? How far did women's mobilization in civil society play a part? How sustainable are these gains likely to be? And of equal importance, there are the questions around the impact of women politicians on policy. Here the volume examines two litmus test pieces of legislation -- around land in Uganda and gender violence in South Africa. What emerges is that the political routes to increased female participation vary and the solidity of the gains made depends much on the strength of the gender-equity lobby in society at large. What is more, participation does not necessarily translate into effective policy influence enhancing the position and interests of women.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
1. Introduction: Women in Power in Uganda and South Africa - Anne Marie Goetz and Shireen Hassim
2. Women's Political Effectiveness - A Conceptual Framework - Anne Marie Goetz
3. Representation, participation and democratic effectiveness: Feminist challenges to representative democracy in South Africa - Shireen Hassim
4. The Problem with Patronage: Constraints on Women's Political Effectiveness in Uganda - Anne Marie Goetz
5. The Politics of Engagement: Women Transforming the Policy Process - Domestic Violence Legislation in South Africa - Sheila Meintjes
6. The 'Lost Clause' - The Campaign to Advance Women's Property Rights in the Uganda 1998 Land Act - Sheila Kawamara-Mishambi and Irene Ovonji-Odida
7. Democratising local government: Problems and opportunities in the advancement of gender equality - Likhapha Mbatha
8. Gender Equity and Local Democracy in Contemporary Uganda: Addressing the Challenge of Women's Political Effectiveness in Local Government - Josephine Ahikire

About the Authors:

Anne Marie Goetz is a political scientist and Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. She has worked on feminist political theory, and has conducted research in South Asia and Southern and Eastern Africa on the politics of promoting gender-equity in development policy and on gender and political party development. She is also studying movements of the poor to combat corruption in South Asia.

She is the author of: Women Development Workers: Implementing Credit Programmes in Bangladesh (Sage, 2001). She co-edited Getting Institutions Right for Women in Development (Zed, 1997), and is the co-author of: Contesting Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements (Cambridge University Press, 2000)

Shireen Hassim is a political scientist and lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Witwatersrand. She is a long-time anti-apartheid and women's rights activist, and has conducted research in Sough Africa on women's engagement in the policy-making process.