Ghana, an emerging democracy, lags far behind in women’s representation in Parliament. This article, based on interviews with delegates, aspirants, candidates, Members of Parliament and potential female presidential candidates, suggests that women are dissuaded from standing for Parliament by the exorbitant ‘cost of politics’, humiliating ‘politics of insult’ and keen appreciation of Parliament’s limitations. Still, women may be eager to hold appointive office. Until new democracies are established with electoral systems devoid of costly and insulting electoral politics, and with elected offices in which women may accomplish important goals, women will not exhibit the political ambition to participate in those spaces.
Adams, M., Scherpereel, J. and Jacob, S. (2016) The representation of women in African legislatures and cabinets: an examination with reference to Ghana, Journal of Women, Politics and Policy, 37: 145–67. doi: 10.1080/1554477X.2016.1152830
Aidoo, A.A. (1985) Women in the history and culture of Ghana, Research Review, 1(1): 14–51.
Allah-Mensah, B. and Osei-Afful, R. (2019) Between democratization and patronage: the politics of Ghana’s Domestic Violence Act (2007), In S. Nazneen, S. Hickey and E. Sifaki (eds), Negotiating gender equity in the Global South: The politics of domestic violence policy, London: Routledge.
Amoah-Boampong, C. (2018) Historicising the women’s Manifesto for Ghana: a culmination of women’s activism in Ghana, Legon Journal of the Humanities, 29(2): 26–53. doi: 10.4314/ljh.v29i2.2
Ampofo, A.A. (2008) Collective activism: the domestic violence bill becoming law in Ghana, African and Asian Studies, 7(4): 395–421. doi: 10.1163/156921008X359597
Awuah, S. (2017) Addressing gender imbalance in Ghana’s Parliament, Background Paper No. 2, January, Accra: Parliament of Ghana Research Department, www.parliament.gh/publications?research&gp=4
Barkan, J. (2009) African legislatures and the ‘third wave’ of democratization, In J. Barkan (ed), Legislative power in emerging African democracies, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp. 1–31.
Barnes, T. and Burchard, S. (2013) Engendering politics: the impact of descriptive representation on women’s political engagement in sub-Saharan Africa, Comparative Political Studies, 46(7): 767–90. doi: 10.1177/0010414012463884
Baturo, A. and Gray, A. (2018) When do family ties matter? The duration of female suffrage and women’s path to high political office, Political Research Quarterly, 71(3): 695–709. doi: 10.1177/1065912918759438
Bauer, G. (2010) ‘Cows will lead the herd into a precipice’: where are the women MPs in Botswana?, Botswana Notes and Records, 42: 56–70.
Bauer, G. (2019) Women in African parliaments: progress and prospects, In O. Yacob-Haliso and T. Falola (eds), The Palgrave handbook of African women’s studies, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bauer, G. and Britton, H. (eds) (2006) Women in African parliaments, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Bauer, G. and Darkwah, A. (2019) ‘Some money has to be going’: discounted filing fees to bring more women into Parliament in Ghana, In R. Muriaas, V. Wang and R. Murray (eds), Gendered electoral financing: Money, power and representation in comparative perspective, London: Routledge.
Bauer, G. and Darkwah, A. (forthcoming) Gendered cabinet appointment process in Africa? Ghana case study.
Beck, L. (2003) Democratization and the hidden public: the impact of patronage networks on Senegalese women, Comparative Politics, 35(2): 147–69. doi: 10.2307/4150149
Boafo-Arthur, K. (2005) Longitudinal view on Ghana’s parliamentary practices, In M.A.M. Salih (ed), African parliaments: Between governance and government, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 120–41.
Boahen, A.A. (2000) Yaa Asantewaa in the Yaa Asantewaa War of 1900: military leader or symbolic head?, Ghana Studies, 3: 111–35. doi: 10.1353/ghs.2000.0005
Brempong, A. (2000) The role of Nana Yaa Asantewaa in the 1900 Asante War of Resistance, Ghana Studies, 3: 97–110. doi: 10.1353/ghs.2000.0004
Carroll, S.J. and Sanbonmatsu, K. (2013) More women can run: Gender and pathways to the state legislatures, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coalition on the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana (2004) The women’s manifesto for Ghana, Accra: ABANTU for Development.
Coalition on the Women’s Manifesto for Ghana (2016) The women’s manifesto for Ghana (2nd edn), Accra: ABANTU for Development.
Creevey, L. (2006) Senegal: contending with religious constraints, In G. Bauer and H. Britton (eds), Women in African parliaments, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp 151–69.
Dahlerup, D. (2017) Has democracy failed women?, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Darkwa, L. (2015) ‘In our father’s name in our motherland’: the politics of women’s political participation in Ghana, In B.Y. Gebe (ed), Constitutionalism, democratic governance and the African state, Accra: Black Mask Limited, pp. 239–74.
Darwin, R.L. (2017) The power of female brokers: local elections in North Aceh, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 39(3): 532–51. doi: 10.1355/cs39-3g
Denzer, L. (2005) Gender and decolonization: a study of three women in West African public life, In A. Cornwall (ed), Readings in gender in Africa, London: James Currey, pp. 217–24.
Dittmar, K. (2015) Encouragement is not enough. Addressing social and structural barriers to women’s recruitment, Politics & Gender, 11(4): 760–5.
Fox, R. and Lawless, J. (2004) Entering the arena? Gender and the decision to run for office, American Journal of Political Science, 48(2): 264–80. doi: 10.1111/j.0092-5853.2004.00069.x
Fox, R. and Lawless, J. (2010) If only they would ask: gender, recruitment, and political ambition, Journal of Politics, 72(2): 310–26. doi: 10.1017/S0022381609990752
Fox, R. and Lawless, J. (2014) Uncovering the origins of the gender gap in political ambition, American Political Science Review, 108(3): 499–519. doi: 10.1017/S0003055414000227
Gadzekpo, A. (2005) The hidden history of women in Ghanaian print culture, In O. Oyewumi (ed), African gender studies: A reader, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 279–97.
Gyampo, R. (2015) Dealing with Ghana’s winner takes-all politics: the case for an independent parliament, Governance: A Publication of the IEA, 20(1), http://ieagh.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Governance-Newsletter-2-22-7-2016.pdf
Ibrahim, J. (2004) The first lady syndrome and the marginalisation of women from power: opportunities or compromises for gender equality?, Feminist Africa, 3, www.agi.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/429/feminist_africa_journals/archive/03/fa_3_feature_article_3.pdf
Ichino, N. and Nathan, N. (2016) Democratizing the party: the effects of primary election reforms in Ghana, 28 November, https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Democratizing-the-Party-%3A-The-Effects-of-Primary-in-Ichino-Nathan/c64923f24c782bb6744f74539354a99b7ab2a65e
Kayuni, H. and Muriaas, R. (2014) Alternatives to gender quotas: electoral financing of women candidates in Malawi, Representation, 50(3): 393–404. doi: 10.1080/00344893.2014.951235
Krook, M.L. (2018) Violence against women in politics: a rising global trend, Politics & Gender, 14(4): 673–5.
Krook, M.L. and Restrepo Sanin, J. (2019) The cost of doing politics? Analyzing violence and harassment against female politicians, Perspectives on Politics, 1–16. doi: 10.1017/S1537592719001397
Laserud, S. and Taphorn, R. (2007) Designing for equality: Best-fit, medium-fit and non-favourable combinations of electoral systems and gender quotas, Stockholm: International Idea.
Lindberg, S. (2010) What accountability pressures do MPs in Africa face and how do they respond? Evidence from Ghana, Journal of Modern African Studies, 48: 117–42. doi: 10.1017/S0022278X09990243
Lindberg, S. and Zhou, Y. (2009) Co-optation despite democratization in Ghana, In J. Barkan (ed), Legislative power in emerging African democracies, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp. 147–66.
Manuh, T. (1988) The Asantehemaa’s Court and its jurisdiction over women: a study in legal pluralism, Research Review, 4(2): 50–66.
Manuh, T. (1991) Women and their organisations during the Convention Peoples’ Party period, In K. Arhin (ed), The work and life of Kwame Nkrumah, Accra: Sedco Publishing Limited, pp. 108–13.
Matland, R. (2006) Electoral quotas: frequency and effectiveness, In D. Dahlerup (ed), Women, quotas and politics, London: Routledge, pp. 275–92.
Muriaas, R., Tonnessen, L. and Wang, V. (2016) Substantive representation: from timing to framing of family law reform in Morocco, South Africa and Uganda, In H. Danielsen, K. Jegerstedt, R.L. Muriaas and B. Ytre-Arne (eds), Gendered citizenship and the politics of representation, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 111–35.
Musah, B.I. and Gariba, I. (2013) Women and political decision making: perspectives from Ghana’s Parliament, Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, 5: 443–76.
Ninsin, K. (2016) Elections and representation in Ghana’s democracy, In K. Ninsin (ed), Issues in Ghana’s electoral politics, Dakar: CODESRIA, pp. 115–34.
Nketiah, E.S. (2010) A history of women in politics in Ghana, Milton Keynes: AuthorHouse UK Ltd.
Oduro, A., Baah-Boateng, W. and Boakye-Yiadom, L. (2011) Measuring the gender asset gap in Ghana, Accra: Woeli Publishing Services.
Oquaye, M. (2017) Inaugural address as 7th Speaker of Parliament, 7 January, http://citifmonline.com/2017/01/07/mike-oquayes-inaugural-address-as-speaker-of-7th-parliament-full-text/
Osori, A. (2017) Love does not win elections, Lagos: Narrative Landscape Press.
Piscopo, J. (forthcoming) Women running in the world: candidate training programs in comparative perspective, In R. Bernhard, M. Holman, S. Shames and D. Teele (eds), Good reasons to run, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Prah, M. (2007) Ghana’s feminist movement: Aspirations, challenges, achievements, Accra: Institute for Democratic Governance.
Prempeh, K.H. (2008) Presidents untamed: progress and retreat in Africa, Journal of Democracy, 19(2): 109–23. doi: 10.1353/jod.2008.0036
Sackeyfio-Lenoch, N. (2018) Women’s international alliances in an emergent Ghana, Journal of West African History, 4(1): 27–56. doi: 10.14321/jwestafrihist.4.1.0027
Steegstra, M. (2009) Krobo Queen Mothers: gender, power and contemporary female traditional authority in Ghana, Africa Today, 55: 105–23. doi: 10.2979/AFT.2009.55.3.104
Stoeltje, B. (2003) Asante Queen Mothers: precolonial authority in a postcolonial society, Research Review, 19: 1–19.
Tamale, S. (1999) When hens begin to crow: Gender and parliamentary politics in Uganda, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Telingator, S. and Weeks, S.M. (2019) Catalyzing stagnant norms: female parliamentarians’ creative impact on weary public institutions, In B. Mbaye and B. Muhonja (eds), Gender and sexuality in Senegalese societies, New York, NY: Lexington Books.
Tripp, A.M. (2000) Women and politics in Uganda, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Wang, V. and Muriaas, R. (2019) Candidate selection and informal soft quotas for women: gender imbalance in political recruitment in Zambia, Politics, Groups and Identities 7(2): 401–11.
WFD (Westminster Foundation for Democracy) (2018) The cost of politics in Ghana, www.wfd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Cost_Of_Politics_Ghana.pdf
May 2022 onwards | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 2546 | 1195 | 74 |
Full Text Views | 221 | 22 | 4 |
PDF Downloads | 172 | 29 | 5 |
Institutional librarians can find more information about free trials here