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Professor discusses shift in African women’s roles in post-conflict countries


While conflict in African countries has far-reaching negative consequences, one researcher has found that women’s increased presence in politics has been a positive byproduct of war.

Aili Tripp, a professor of political science and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin, gave a presentation at the Tempe campus Monday about her ongoing research into the shifting roles of women in countries that have come out of extended periods of conflict.

Post-conflict African countries have higher percentages of female elected officials both at the local and national level than other African countries that have not undergone conflict, Tripp said.

During her presentation she stressed that her findings were in no way advocating for or glorifying civil conflict in order to obtain women’s rights.

She said the shift of women’s roles at the end of long periods of violent conflict can stem from an increase in women’s movements during conflict, changes in international norms, and an increase in opportunities in these countries when the conflict subsides.

“The main point is that we’re seeing some interesting trends in post-conflict African countries,” Tripp said after her presentation. “Women are getting increased political representation on all levels in these countries.”

She said Rwanda had the highest percentage of women in government, with 56 percent of their legislative seats held by women.

“I don’t think it’s an accident that these are post-conflict countries,” she said.

She said there were about 15 African post-conflict countries, meaning they no longer had more than 1,000 deaths per year.

Tripp said she does not believe these roles are increasingly held by women because the male population has been depleted by fighting, as is commonly believed.

“The longer the conflict and the more violent, the higher the rates of representation of women in parliament,” Tripp said. “These are the societies where there has been the most disruption in gender roles, and it’s shifted things up in a way that for better or for worse it’s created new possibilities and ways women had to envision their roles in society.”

The increase of women in politics in these countries is also attributable to electoral quotas, where a certain number of seats in the legislature or parliament are set aside for women, and compulsory quotas, which are adopted by political parties to give preferential treatment to women.

These quotas were instituted after civil conflict officially ended. Fourteen out of 15 African post-conflict countries now have these quotas in place.

The success of women’s rights movements in these countries was due to the women coming together across party, race and religious lines with a common goal, she said.

They were united in order to combat violence against women, especially sexual and domestic violence. They also wanted to establish inheritance and property rights, and institute quotas for women in politics.

“They came to the peace talks united already across these differences with this women’s agenda, whereas you would find the men would be sitting with their own parties or their own ethnic groups,” Tripp said.

Stanley James, director of the African and African American Studies program in the School of Social Transformation, has worked with Tripp on research in the past, and invited her to speak at ASU because students needed to hear about this research.

“We needed to have somebody talk about what’s happening,” James said. “She provided information for us about women’s rights and about feminism and international women’s rights, so there’s a lot to walk away with.”

Women and gender studies doctoral student Debjani Chakravarty said she attended the lecture because it was on a subject she knew little about, and she wanted to compare it to similar quota practices in India.

“I wanted to compare it to the quotas in India,” she said. “Quotas in India do not work, but it seemed they do work in the African situation. It was very encouraging.”

Reach the reporter at ymgonzal@asu.edu


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