This thesis compared the status of women's political participation in Cameroon and South Africa through an assessment conducted against the backdrop key of international, regional and national human rights standards. The aim of this thesis was not only, to be conscious of women's absence in politics, but to also take steps to redefine sound strategies to implement gender equality in terms of the political participation of women on the part of governments.

This thesis compared the status of women's political participation in Cameroon and South Africa through an assessment conducted against the backdrop key of international, regional and national human rights standards. The aim of this thesis was not only, to be conscious of women's absence in politics, but to also take steps to redefine sound strategies to implement gender equality in terms of the political participation of women on the part of governments.

<p>In this study, I examine how women Parliamentarians understand their political influence within the South African Parliament and what environmental factors contribute to this understanding. Currently, South Africa is a global leader for the amount of women in Parliament and has been since the 1994 democratic transition. This study examines the formal and informal factors that South African women parliamentarians discuss as helping and hindering their political effectiveness.</p> <p><br /> Aside from the work of Hassim (2003) and Pandor (1999), little academic research explores the experiences of women within South Africa&rsquo / s Parliament. Considering this lack of research regarding women&rsquo / s experiences within government, I selected a research method that would allow an open space for communication: semi-structured interviews with a qualitative feminist analysis. This study explores the opportunities and obstacles that the women perceived as affecting their political influence.<br /> The participant&rsquo / s responses indicate that they perceive a high level of political influence, with some reservations. Four themes emerged as the leading environmental factors in contributing to the participant&rsquo / s political efficacy: the 1994 democratic transition, the Parliament structure (formal and informal), the political party, and the role of gender.</p> <p><br /> The informal structures of Parliament, such as socializing spaces, and gender stereotypes, such as the responsibility of women Parliamentarians for &lsquo / women&rsquo / s issues&rsquo / , were discussed as the primary obstacles that hinder the women Parliamentarian&rsquo / s political influence.</p> <p><br /> The participants felt that the attitudes of political parties regarding women&rsquo / s role in Parliament was critical in facilitating their influence on the political agenda. The women Parliamentarians credited primarily the African National Congress (ANC) political party for framing and developing an atmosphere that mandated women&rsquo / s strong participation in government and their positive perceptions of political influence.</p>

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Over the past two decades governments worldwide have begun to take action to correct gender disparity in representative bodies, resulting in drastic increases in women’s numeric representation. It is unclear, however, how these increases influence legislative behavior. This research contributes to our understanding of how increases in women’s numeric representation influences substantive representation of women. I collected an original dataset to examine this relationship across twenty-three subnational Argentine legislatures over eighteen years. This project represents one of the first empirical efforts to examine women’s substantive representation over a large number of legislatures over a long duration of time. A key piece of the puzzle is to understand if female exhibit distinct preferences from their male colleagues. The second chapter of the dissertation uses a new data set of ideal point estimates recovered from cosponsorship data to examine gender differences in legislative preferences. I find strong evidence to suggest women display different legislative preferences than their male colleagues. Chapter three investigates how increases in women’s numeric representation influence women’s legislative behavior. Previous research suggests that increasing women’s numeric representation should enhance the probability that women work together to pursue common legislative agendas. Yet, I demonstrate that as the percentage of women in the chamber increases, women are increasingly less likely to work together. I argue that this unexpected finding can be explained by considering how institutions shape women’s legislative incentives. In chapter four, I develop theoretical expectations about the conditions under which increases in the proportion of female legislators, in combination with institutional arrangements, will foster or stifle women’s opportunities and incentives to represent women’s interests. The chapter provides strong empirical support for the hypothesis that women behave differently conditional on institutional incentives. These findings imply that understanding institutions is key to understanding how and when female representatives will stand for women. Taken together, this dissertation makes an important contribution to our understanding of how changes in the proportion of female legislators and differences in institutional contexts shape women’s legislative behavior.

This thesis explores institutional features of the Fifth Republic in France that affect women's representation, both in terms of their access to elected office and in terms of their ability to substantively represent women once elected. After identifying factors that were particularly favourable to women in the 1997 Parliament, it assesses the institutional reforms enacted from 1997-2002, which include not only the Constitutional Amendment and the Parity Law, but also limitations on the cumul des mandats, reform of the Senate, the creation of a statut de l'elu (defining elected officials' benefits and rights) and of the new parliamentary Women's Delegations. It attempts a holistic appraisal of the institutional reforms, and their effect on patterns of political recruitment. The second part analyses practices and power within the Palais-Bourbon to assess gender differences in access to parliamentary posts and tasks. It investigates the National Assembly as a 'gendered institution' and asks whether women are in a position to make a difference to the political process and legislative outcomes. It finds perceptible differences in women's and men's access to power, their committee work and use of parliamentary questions. The thesis concludes with a study of the Women's Delegation. After investigating the rationale and circumstances of its creation, the institutional status of the Delegation within the Assembly is analysed. Its contribution to legislation and its modus operandi in the 1997 Parliament, as well as its integration into the National Assembly are examined, in order to ascertain whether it has the potential to enhance women's substantive representation and to provide' safe space' for women Deputies.

This thesis attempts to further the study of women's political participation by examining involvement in the Montreal Citizens Movement from approximately the time of its founding in the early 1970s to just after its achievement of power in 1986. Three approaches--resource mobilization, sexual division of labor and role conflict--are used to analyze critically the individual determinants, structural foundations, and nature of this participation, while a brief historical background provides the context for the movement and for its participants' actions. While authors have studied the MCM's structure and programs in general and have noted women's involvement primarily in its early stage as a social movement, there has been only limited discussion of women's participation. This thesis builds upon the latter by documenting and analyzing the nature of such participation using content analysis, participant observation, and personal interviews.

Over the last few years there has been a escalation of interest in the study of femineity and women. The term "men" is used as an unmarked omnipresent category to symbolise humanity in general. Over the last two decades feminists have challenged the ideological and material requirements of such definite male bias. Feminists have built their position on the notion of 'the personal is political", feminists have raised a number of questions regarding the status quo in society. In this dissertation, the researcher does not aim to fill a descriptive void, but to demonstrate the theories and approaches to gender as well as suggest further areas for research. In the introduction, the researcher examines the wider academic background to the study as well as raising intellectual and political issues raised by feminists and postmodern theory. A basic axiom is that new intuition into social relations follow the investigation of cultural categories that have previously been taken for granted. The chapter on India draws attention to the ways in which femininity produced within the Chipko movement impinged on the relations between colonizer and colonized. The indigenous notions of gendered difference are constantly created and transformed in everyday interactions. Relations of power are constituent parts of these interactions. This experience is never comprehensive, hence it changes over time and space. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.

This dissertation examines the periodical essay as a site for women's political activity in the nineteenth century. I suggest that the essays and articles of well-known writers Fanny Fern, Marie Corelli, and Sarah Grand, and others who are less well-known, such as Ignota and Mary Livermore, together form a significant body of prose non-fiction that highlights women's active involvement in political debate. I focus primarily upon women's contributions to general-interest periodicals---where women were competing for space against a wider variety of male writers---rather than on ladies' magazines or the suffrage press, whose more narrow goals diminish the potency of women's appearance in the press. Much of my study focuses on the British Nineteenth Century and the American North American Review , both of which turned to series of articles and carefully organized groups of essays to showcase women's inclusion in the debate, often summarized as the Woman Question, over women's position in nineteenth-century society. Throughout, I posit that women's publication on topics concerning women's rights constitutes culturally and generically sanctioned political activity. The five chapters represent increasingly specific aspects of this activity. The first positions women's involvement within the press's penchant for diversity. The second argues for a connection between the influential function of the periodical press and the role of women as positive influences on others. While this influence is generally interpreted as purely domestic, I suggest an alternative reading that endorses women's publication in periodicals. The third chapter examines how women play on notions of gender and identity to create viable public voices in the press. In chapter four, I turn my attention to the ways in which women occupy the forum of the periodical to comment on and prescribe male behavior. Finally, in chapter five I discuss the ways women exert their powers to interpret and comment upon p

<p>In this study, I examine how women Parliamentarians understand their political influence within the South African Parliament and what environmental factors contribute to this understanding. Currently, South Africa is a global leader for the amount of women in Parliament and has been since the 1994 democratic transition. This study examines the formal and informal factors that South African women parliamentarians discuss as helping and hindering their political effectiveness.</p> <p><br /> Aside from the work of Hassim (2003) and Pandor (1999), little academic research explores the experiences of women within South Africa&rsquo / s Parliament. Considering this lack of research regarding women&rsquo / s experiences within government, I selected a research method that would allow an open space for communication: semi-structured interviews with a qualitative feminist analysis. This study explores the opportunities and obstacles that the women perceived as affecting their political influence.<br /> The participant&rsquo / s responses indicate that they perceive a high level of political influence, with some reservations. Four themes emerged as the leading environmental factors in contributing to the participant&rsquo / s political efficacy: the 1994 democratic transition, the Parliament structure (formal and informal), the political party, and the role of gender.</p> <p><br /> The informal structures of Parliament, such as socializing spaces, and gender stereotypes, such as the responsibility of women Parliamentarians for &lsquo / women&rsquo / s issues&rsquo / , were discussed as the primary obstacles that hinder the women Parliamentarian&rsquo / s political influence.</p> <p><br /> The participants felt that the attitudes of political parties regarding women&rsquo / s role in Parliament was critical in facilitating their influence on the political agenda. The women Parliamentarians credited primarily the African National Congress (ANC) political party for framing and developing an atmosphere that mandated women&rsquo / s strong participation in government and their positive perceptions of political influence.</p>