Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Gender Quotas in South Africa - Addressing women’s descriptive political representation through an intersectional analysis

Tiainen, Reetta LU (2018) STVK12 20181
Department of Political Science
Abstract
This research is an attempt to critically re-examine the effects of gender quotas on women’s descriptive representation in South Africa. South Africa has been internationally acclaimed as one of the success stories in bringing more women into parliament trough the introduction of a gender quota. However, the quota in place has been introduced by a single, dominant political party, the African National Congress (ANC), and is voluntary by nature. Given these contextual factors previous research has outlined issues of miss usage of the quota. The ANC has been depicted to use the quota as a political tool to gain legitimacy among voters while
disregarding broader gender mainstreaming agenda. This has led to an increasing homogenization of... (More)
This research is an attempt to critically re-examine the effects of gender quotas on women’s descriptive representation in South Africa. South Africa has been internationally acclaimed as one of the success stories in bringing more women into parliament trough the introduction of a gender quota. However, the quota in place has been introduced by a single, dominant political party, the African National Congress (ANC), and is voluntary by nature. Given these contextual factors previous research has outlined issues of miss usage of the quota. The ANC has been depicted to use the quota as a political tool to gain legitimacy among voters while
disregarding broader gender mainstreaming agenda. This has led to an increasing homogenization of the representatives elected through the quota based on ideological, regional and class divide. Based on these contextual factors and outlined political discourses from previous research, my thesis works as a theory-testing exercise to analyse what intersectional
theory can tell about the case of the ANC gender quota. Through a descriptive analysis of female representatives’ intersectional characteristics, patterns of political privilege and disadvantage and contextual factors affecting these patterns I have been able to interrogate the complexities associated with gender quotas. My findings point out to a significant numerical empowerment of educated, politically engaged black women. However, the ANC gender quota has failed to account to an intersectional diversity of the representatives, which places
the quota under a new level of criticism. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Tiainen, Reetta LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK12 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8948592
date added to LUP
2018-08-24 11:07:39
date last changed
2018-08-24 11:07:39
@misc{8948592,
  abstract     = {{This research is an attempt to critically re-examine the effects of gender quotas on women’s descriptive representation in South Africa. South Africa has been internationally acclaimed as one of the success stories in bringing more women into parliament trough the introduction of a gender quota. However, the quota in place has been introduced by a single, dominant political party, the African National Congress (ANC), and is voluntary by nature. Given these contextual factors previous research has outlined issues of miss usage of the quota. The ANC has been depicted to use the quota as a political tool to gain legitimacy among voters while 
disregarding broader gender mainstreaming agenda. This has led to an increasing homogenization of the representatives elected through the quota based on ideological, regional and class divide. Based on these contextual factors and outlined political discourses from previous research, my thesis works as a theory-testing exercise to analyse what intersectional 
theory can tell about the case of the ANC gender quota. Through a descriptive analysis of female representatives’ intersectional characteristics, patterns of political privilege and disadvantage and contextual factors affecting these patterns I have been able to interrogate the complexities associated with gender quotas. My findings point out to a significant numerical empowerment of educated, politically engaged black women. However, the ANC gender quota has failed to account to an intersectional diversity of the representatives, which places 
the quota under a new level of criticism.}},
  author       = {{Tiainen, Reetta}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Gender Quotas in South Africa - Addressing women’s descriptive political representation through an intersectional analysis}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}