Gender, Development, and Democratization in Africa

Abstract

This paper queries the link between gender, development, and democratization in Africa while focussing on ongoing political transitions in Kenya and Ghana. This paper looks specifically at the marginalization of women in the public life of politics, while men continue to both control state structures and determine the neophytes in the public domain. It also looks at specific women leaders in Kenya and Ghana who traverse the public and private domains, pointing to the artificiality of that dichotomy. This paper also interrogates whether or not this dawn of political transitions can bring democracy back in without bringing women in, with the same equal citizenship rights as men. The paper also demonstrates how this query is relevant in evolving democracies, as well as in sustained liberal democracies.