Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:30:00.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Making the Invisible Visible: African Women in Politics and Policy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Jean F. O'Barr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Political science as a discipline has ignored women in its research and consequently in its literature. Cathartic ranting and raving by feminist political scientists about the blindness of their male colleagues will not bring out the fundamental issues. The shortsightedness of political scientists about the political role? of women is not merely a function of the attitudes of the discipline's practitioners (the vast majority of whom have always been males). Nor can the whole problem of how political science views women be discarded with the observation that women are rarely influential actors in public activities and therefore do not merit the serious attention of observers of political life.

The invisibility of women in political science stems from the traditional concerns and emphases of the discipline which come, in turn, from its largely Western setting. By examining politics in other cultural settings, we can come to understand why women have received so little attention in political science. Only with a significant expansion of its scope can the discipline incorporate women into its analyses. The changing circumstances of politics around the world now mandates such an expansion. Nowhere is this more obviously the case than in Africa. Before examining how and why political scientists have ignored African women, it is important to review briefly political science as a discipline.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , December 1975 , pp. 19 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Patricia Cole for her research assistance in preparing this manuscript.

References

REFERENCES

Almond, Gabriel, and Verba, Sidney. (1965) The Civic Structure. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co.Google Scholar
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1975) “Women in development.” Preliminary annotated bibliography prepared for seminar prior to Mexico City International Women's Year Meeting.Google Scholar
Boserup, Ester. (1970) Woman's Role in Economic Development. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Chaney, Elsa M. (1973) “Women in Latin American politics: the case of Peru and Chile.” In Pescatello, Ann, ed. Female and Male in Latin America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 103–139.Google Scholar
Collier, Jane Fishburne. (1974) “Women in politics.” In Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist and Lamphere, Louise, eds. Women, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 89–96.Google Scholar
Constantini, Edmond, and Craik, Kenneth H.. (1972) “Women as politicians: the social background, personality and political careers of female party leaders.” Journal of Social Issues (28, 2), pp. 217–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVries, Margaret. (1971) “Women, jobs and development.” Finance and Development (9), pp. 3–9.Google Scholar
Dobert, Margarita. (1970) “Liberation and the women of Guinea.” Africa Report (15, 7), pp. 26–28.Google Scholar
Duverger, Maurice. (1955) The Political Role of Women. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Economic Commission for Africa. (1973) “Women and national development: some profound contradictions.” Poisition paper presented by Human Resources Development Division, Women's Programme Unit in conjunction with the Task Force on Women of the Ford Foundation.Google Scholar
Farah, Barbara G., and Hoag, Wendy J.. (1973) “The changing status and role of women in politics.” In McGuigan, Dorothy G., ed. New Research on Women. Ann Arbor: Center for Continuing Education of Women at the University of Michigan, pp. 191–198.Google Scholar
Friedl, Ernestine. (1975) Women and Men: An Anthropoligical View. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Gailey, Harry A. (1970) The Road to Aba. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Hammond, Dorothy, and Jablow, Alta. (1973) Women: Their Economic Role in Traditional Societies. Reading, Mass.: An Addison-Wesley Module in Anthropology, No. 35.Google Scholar
Heggoy, Alf Andrew. (1974) “On the evolution of Algerian women.” African Studies Review (17, 2), pp. 449–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgkin, Thomas. (1956) Nationalism in Tropical Africa. London: Muller.Google Scholar
Hoffer, Carol P. (1972) “Mende and Sherbro women in high office.” Canadian Journal of African Studies (6, 2), pp. 151–164.Google Scholar
Hottel, Althea, ed. (1968) Women Around the World. Philadelphia: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, No. 375.Google Scholar
Jancor, Barbara. (1974) “Women under communism.” In Jaquette, Jane S., ed. Women in Politics. New York: Wiley, pp. 217–242.Google Scholar
Janeway, Elizabeth. (1971) Man's World, Woman's Place. New York: Morrow.Google Scholar
Janeway, Elizabeth. (1974) Between Myth and Morning: Women Awakening. New York: Morrow.Google Scholar
Jaquette, Jane S., ed. (1974) Women in Politics. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Kaberry, Phillis M. (1952) Women of the Grassfields: A Study of the Economic Position of Women in Bamenda. London: Colonial Office Research Publication No. 14.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Jeanne J. (1974) Political Woman. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lapidus, Gail Warshofsky. (1974) “Modernization theory and sex roles in critical perspective: the case of the Soviet Union.” In Jaquette, Jane S., ed. Women in Politics. New York: Wiley, pp. 243–256.Google Scholar
Lebeuf, Annie. (1971) “The role of women in the political organization of African societies.” In Paulme, Denise, ed. Women of Tropical Africa. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp. 93–120.Google Scholar
Letih-Ross, Sylvia. (1939) African Women: The Ibo in Transition. London: Faberand Faber.Google Scholar
Matthiasson, Carolyn J., ed. (1974) Many Sisters: Women in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Mbilinyi, Marjorie J. (1972) “The ‘new woman’ and traditional norms in Tanzania.” Journal of Modem African Studies (10, 1), pp. 57–72.Google Scholar
McWilliams, Nancy. (1974) “Contemporary feminism, consciousness-raising, and changing views of the political.” In Jaquette, Jane, ed. Women in Politics. New York: Wiley, pp. 157–170.Google Scholar
O'Barr, Jean. (1970) Ten-House Party Cells and their Leaders: Micro-politics in Pare District, Tanzania. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, Evanston.Google Scholar
Patai, Raphael, ed. (1967) Women in the Modern World. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Paulme, Denise, ed. (1971) Women in Tropical Africa. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Perham, Margery. (1937) Native Administration in Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pescatello, Ann, ed. (1973) Female and Male in Latin America. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Purcell, Susan Kaufman. (1973) “Modernizing women for a modern society: the Cuban case.” In Pescatello, Ann, ed. Female and Male in Latin America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 257–272.Google Scholar
Reeves, Nancy. (1971) Womankind: Beyond the Stereotypes. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist, and Lamphere, Louise, eds. (1974) Women, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Silverston, Jonathan. (1974) “Participation of women in development.” A background paper on the New Foreign Policy Assistance Act Provision (Percy Amendment). Department of State: Civic Participation Division, Office of Policy Coordination, Agency for International Development.Google Scholar
Smith, Mary. (1955) Baba of Karo. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Tinker, Irene. (1973) “The role of women in development.” International Development Review (15, 2), p. 41.Google Scholar
Tinker, Irene. (1975) “The adverse impact of development on women.” Paper presented to Comparative Area Studies Program, Duke University, Durham, N.C. Google Scholar
Van Allen, Judith. (1972) “Sitting on a man: colonialism and the lost political institutions of Igbo women.” Canadian Journal of African Studies (6, 2), pp. 165–182.Google Scholar
Van Allen, Judith. (1974) “ Memsahib, militante, femme libre: political and apolitical styles of modern African women.” In Jaquette, Jane S., ed. Women in Politics. New York: Wiley, pp. 304–321.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Vernon. (1966) “The optimum scope of political science.” In Charlesworth, Janes C., ed. A Design for Political Science: Scope, Objectives and Methods. Philadelphia: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, No. 6, pp. 1–17.Google Scholar
Ward, Barbara. (1963) Women in the New Asia. Paris: UNESCO.Google Scholar
Wipper, Audrey. (1971) “The politics of sex.” African Studies Review (14, 3), pp. 463–482.Google Scholar
Women and American Politics: A Selected Bibliography, 1965-1974. (1974) Center for the American Woman and Politics (CAWP), Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers-The State University.Google Scholar