Small victories but slow progress: An examination of women in politics in Malawi - Rebecca Tiessen

Between 1994 and 2006, Malawi experienced some gains in women's political participation and increased representation in Parliament. However, Malawi has not fared as well as many of its African neighbours in its efforts to promote women in leadership positions. In this article I examine the factors that contribute to Malawi's weak performance in this regard, including a political history of patriarchal rule, a political culture of neopatrimonialism, limited opportunities for women to demand access to positions of power (including no significant political transformation creating space for women's participation) and a social and cultural context which discourages women from entering politics. I examine these challenges to the political participation of women by drawing on feminist literature, as well as quantitative and qualitative data from a 2001 Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) study and twenty interviews with women in Malawi conducted in 2005.
From: International Feminist Journal of Politics, June 2008