Gender, numbers and substance: The "politics of presence" and parliamentary women in KwaZulu-Natal
Authors
Francis, SuzanneAffiliation
University of Chester; University of KwaZulu-NatalPublication Date
2009
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This article investigates four dimensions of the political institutional representation of women by women parliamentarians in KwaZulu-Natal. It begins by exploring whether or not women Members of the Provincial Parliament (MPPs) actively seek to substantively represent women, and how they do this. Secondly, it probes the perceptions they hold of their impact in this area. Third, the question of whether and how contested conceptions of political representation impact on attempts to feminise the agenda, is raised. Lastly, the article explores the impact of women MPPs via the institutional mechanism of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (WPC). The results show that the majority of parliamentary women do seek to represent women and claim effectiveness in doing so. Challenges to this agenda however include party identity, and racial and cultural conceptions of representation that divide women and strengthen resistance to change. It was also found that while the WPC provides an arena for women to elucidate their specific concerns and partly circumvent the constraints of party and racial and cultural representation, its institutional inadequacies were found to impact negatively upon the women’s agenda – a factor recognised only by a minority of women MPPs.Citation
Francis, S. (2009). Gender, numbers and substance: Women parliamentarians and the ‘politics of presence’ in KwaZulu-Natal. Transformation: Critical perspectives on Southern Africa, 70, 119-141. http://doi.org/10.1353/trn.0.0035Publisher
University of KwaZulu-Natal PressAdditional Links
http://transformationjournal.org.za/t70_part7/Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
0258-7696ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1353/trn.0.0035
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