Obstacles and Challenges for Liberian Women in Politics – Context Analysis in the Passage of the ‘Affirmative Action Bill’ in 2016

In September 2016, the Liberian House of Representatives passed the Equal Representation and Participation Act of 2016, establishing seven ‘Special Constituencies,’ among which five seats will be reserved for women. Although Ellen Johnson Sirleaf defeated a male star candidate to become the first female President of Liberia to lead an African continent in 2005, the existing literature points out that election of a female President has not necessarily translated into better representation of women in the national legislature. Liberia still ranks among the lowest in the world with only 12 percent of women in the Legislature. When it comes to electoral gender quota, it took more than 10 years for Liberia to finally witness the passage of ‘Affirmative Action Bill’ in 2016 since the election of the first female President. To make matters worse, an amendment was made to lower the number of seats for women from 15 to seven. This Paper aims to quantify the intimidation and harassment made by male political actors in an attempt to delay and hinder the passage of law which includes gender quota provision and to lower the number of seats for women during the introduction of the amended law of March 2011 and the passage of `Affirmative Action Bill` in 2016, by using the Liberian Collections Project at Indiana University (http://onliberia.org/index.php), which is one of the largest archives of documents related to Liberia in the world. Content analysis will be conducted by reviewing all newspapers and recording the content of activities and statements by all male actors to influence the bill-introduction process.