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Mainstreaming Gender Equality Through Electoral Gender Quotas: Lessons From Zimbabwe
The Nordic Africa Institute, Research Unit.ORCID iD: 0009-0002-2715-0781
2025 (English)In: Routledge Handbook of Public Policy in the Global South / [ed] Gedion Onyango, Ishtiaq Jamil, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2025, p. 553-567Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Over the past 30 years, electoral gender quotas have effectively promoted gender equality in representative politics worldwide. Zimbabwe incorporated a legal gender quota into its electoral system through its constitution in 2013, aiming to ensure women’s inclusion in major representative political institutions. Consequently, the representation of women in the National Assembly of Zimbabwe increased from 14% in 2008 to 32% in 2013. In 2021, the country amended its constitution to extend the gender quota to local government structures, mandating that 30% of all local government seats be reserved for women. The successful implementation of the quota demonstrated the country’s dedication to international gender equality norms and democratic pluralism. It also indicated the country’s commitment to achieving the continental goal of gender parity as expressed in the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Despite the initial success of the gender quota, women’s representation in Zimbabwe did not increase as anticipated. This chapter shows a weakening commitment to gender equality within the government and political parties. Patriarchal political parties, gender-based prejudices, and political violence discourage women from participating in politics and have diminished the pool of female political candidates. It is also evident that efforts within the government to elevate women’s representation beyond the quota threshold have stagnated. Considering these findings, the chapter recommends implementing complementary gender-responsive policies and strategies to ensure women’s substantive representation and political influence beyond the quota.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2025. p. 553-567
Keywords [en]
Gender quota, Elections, Zimbabwe
National Category
Gender Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nai:diva-3064DOI: 10.4324/9781003561910-44ISBN: 9781003561910 (electronic)ISBN: 9781032901480 (print)ISBN: 9781032912073 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nai-3064DiVA, id: diva2:1984729
Available from: 2025-07-17 Created: 2025-07-17 Last updated: 2025-09-12Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
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  • asciidoc
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