Gender and Governance in the Global South: Challenges and Opportunities for Feminist Organizing in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This panel examines how diverse political actors navigate hyper-imperialism and gendered politics in MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa, using a variety of survey, interview, and experimental methods. In some spaces, historically marginalized groups face gendered elite pushback to institutions to expand their access and power, like female politicians advocating for full implementation of 50 percent ANC gender quotas in South Africa. Under hyper-imperialism, one party dominance under colonialism frequently evolved to one party dominance in quasi-democratic or autocratic regimes. Despite leadership of women executives, Namibia exhibits similarly stalled adoption of zebra quotas, and gender norms uphold high fertility rates rather than delaying child-bearing years to encourage female educational attainment. In Eqypt, Jordan, and Morocco, state leaders to varying degrees suppress awareness of citizen consensus on gender egalitarian principles to maintain the status quo. Feminism in the Global South is not unproblematic. A dearth of feminist mobilization on the issue of male carceral rape in Namibia demonstrates that just treatment and rule of law are denied to disempowered populations to maintain an impenetrable facade of state power and gendered hierarchies on which it is built. While meeting with resistance on family law, feminist actors in Jordanian Gender Equality Machineries have constructed robust policies on violence against women, subverting some regime attempts to gender wash authoritarian tendencies.

Title	Details
The Gender Gap in Women’s Representation in Government in South Africa	View Paper Details
How gender affects Mass and Elite Policy Priorities in Namibia: Examination of SWAPO's zebra gender quotas	View Paper Details
They Really Say That? Perceived Norms and Attitudes toward Women’s Empowerment in the MENA	View Paper Details
Missing Mobilizations: Theorizing Namibian Feminists’ Invisibility in Organizing against Carceral Sexual Violence	View Paper Details
Gender Equality Machineries in Jordan: Tools of the State, Critical Actors, or Both?	View Paper Details