African Politics Needs More Women
By Christof Maletsky

October 20, 2006 - (The Namibian) African political parties must stop paying lip service to women's representation in their top echelons, Namibia's Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila told a meeting in Windhoek yesterday. Politicians, researchers and other policy makers from the continent started meeting in the Namibian capital to discuss ways in which they can strengthen political parties on the continent.

Opening the meeting, Amathila told the mainly male gathering that the 50/50 representation quota announced by regional blocs like SADC were not enough, as they existed on paper alone. "We appreciate the 50/50 quota for women. This is still not enough. Women continue to face socio-cultural, economic and political obstacles to effectively participating in politics," Amathila said.

"It is true that when a man decides to go into politics, all he does is to simply tell his wife. But for a woman to merely think of going into politics, she first and foremost asks her husband for permission. Sometimes even the in-laws".

She said the traditional role assigned to women did not make it easy for them to join politics. They carry a double burden of being a mother and politician. She said the rules for the game of politics were defined by men to suit them and to the extent that some women felt it was not their territory.

Amathila called on women to stand for political office and to make a difference by putting the gender agenda and woman-friendly concerns on the table. "Create a legislative agenda that seeks to empower (inform, educate and train) women to become effective equal members of society," the Deputy Prime Minister said. She welcomed the renewed vigour among Swapo women, who decided to push for 50/50 representation in the party's top leadership structures and the National Assembly.

She also expressed satisfaction with the continued rethinking of the strategic direction in which African politics was moving and called on researchers to make available more intellectual resources to parties in Africa. For her, the meeting was timely because Africans themselves were asking to take leadership in the total political, economic and social reconstruction of the continent.

SADC Parliamentary Forum Secretary General Dr Kasuka Kutukwa said Africans were opening up about politics - something that was taboo until two decades ago.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200610200045.html