By Sani Dalhatu
The exclusion of women in politics has been identified in recent times as one of the major setbacks for economic development.
Women’s groups are a strong pillar for grassroots politics; and a drive for more women participating in politics at the grassroots still faces a lot of challenges, making it difficult for them to harness available opportunities for economic development. Thus, the opportunity therein for more women’s participation in politics and women empowerment is yet to be exploited by the women’s groups in Nigeria.
The exclusion of women in politics has been identified in recent times as one of the major setbacks for economic development. The poor presentation of women in elective positions has been a major social development issue since the beginning of the current democratization process in Nigeria.
Politics as a real-world phenomenon is gendered. The world over, core conditions of people’s lives—including their health, education, security, as well as access to markets, public space, freedom of expression, and their work are fundamentally shaped by their identification as being of a particular sex or gender group (Waylen et al., 2013).
Evidence around the globe indicates the path for women to hold elective office was achieved not only through the efforts of individuals but with collective work through organizations. As identified by Mazur et al. (2016), participants in the women’s movement, including individuals and groups, both informal and formal, are those who identify with women as a group, and are framed as women representing women whose ideas are expressed as overtly gendered. Beckwith (2000) viewed women’s movements as a subset of sociopolitical movements focusing on women’s gendered experiences.
According to Mazur et al. (2016), it was not until the early 2000s that scholars started having a consensus on the meaning of women’s movements for comparative purposes (Molyneux, 1985; Beckwith, 2000). Although, women’s movements were treated by many early feminist scholars, such as Dahlerup (1986), Katzenstein and Mueller (1987), Ferree and Martin (1995), as a major analytical focus or variable; they tried to understand how changes in the nature of women’s movements have influenced policy outcomes and in turn how these activities have affected the movements.
In the earlier years, equal rights, may not have been the cause championed by women’s movements but rather, in traditional African societies, they sought to protect a women’s role of mothering and care-giving, a situation (Gouws, 2015) pointed out might not always be empowering.
In recent times, however, the failure of the patriarchal dominated state to incorporated women’s issues into governance has seen women’s movement springing up around the globe and especially in Africa since the 1990s. Thus, women’s movements have evolved overtime as a result of modernizing forces and processes of redefining the public (politics) and private sphere (household).
There exists a long history of Women’s movements in Western democracies, yet only a few conclusions can be drawn with confidence about their trajectories over the decades (Mazur et al., 2016). There are different variations of women’s movements in existence in different regions of Africa, in terms of their timing, character, influence, and effectiveness.
Various organizations have helped educate voters, raise awareness about women’s rights issues, lobby legislative bodies, and support women running for office.
Even though some groups dissolved after their particular causes were no longer relevant, while other groups have been longer lasting, political groups for women nevertheless continue to play a role in politics today.
Women’s organizations, as observed by Gouws (2015), are spreading and networking across Africa on an unprecedented scale and creating gender-friendly laws and constitutions.
Thus, in recent times, Women’s movements which were hitherto dominated by organizations engaged in “developmental” activities including income-generation, welfare concerns, and home making skills, have evolved to become organizations lobbying for women in decision making position in politics: pressing for legislative and constitutional changes, and conducting civic education. In fact, women on their own went further to form political parties. From an account from Holm (1992), the reason was partly because women’s concerns have not been adequately addressed by existing parties in the multiparty system.
This is because in many instances women’s political visions are different and do not align with existing parties structures and, thus, are not accommodated; in some cases, the women wanted to build more broad multiethnic and multi-religious constituencies than was possible with existing parties.
Examples include: the National Party in Zambia in 1991 started by Dr. Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika; the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats in 1999 by Margaret Dongo; and Kopanang Basotho in Lesotho formed by Limakatso Ntakatsane. Likewise, in Kenya, parties were headed by Charity Ngilu and Dr. Wangari Maathai; in Central African Republic, Ruth Rolland-Jeanne-Marie led a party; similarly in Angola, Amália de Vitoria Pereira led a party (Tripp, 1999).
Women-led parties with broad male and female constituencies had sprang up in Zambia, Kenya and several other countries due to the reluctance of political parties to take steps to increase women’s representation (Holm, 1992).
In Nigeria however, although political parties are not yet led by women, women have been organizing themselves to redefine their position in the society since the pre-colonial period.
In the last two decades women’s organizations have witnessed a significant increase and a greatly diversified set of issues are being addressed.
There are associations, cooperatives, trade groups, faith based organizations at local, state and national levels, and some with regional and international connections (Centre for Human Development (2012).
Despite the enormous achievements of the Nigerian women’s movement so far, there remains a plethora of issues to be addressed urgently; a major one is the greater involvement of women in political and decision-making processes.
The social and economic pressures which have become pronounced in the last two decades and the emergence of the male dominated democratic system are having a negative effect on the gains of the past. There is, therefore, a clear need to re-think the approach to women’s empowerment and gender equality, especially in the area of increasing women’s political participation.
