Why Autocracies in Africa Adopt Women’s Rights?

• In Event: Gender and Authoritarian Politics: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The recent authoritarian turn globally raises questions about what happens to women’s rights in such contexts. Surprisingly, some authoritarian regimes in Africa have proven rather adept at adopting women’s rights provisions, making extensive constitutional and legislative reforms and promoting women as leaders. Advancing women’s rights in some authoritarian states may be a way of seeking internal and external legitimacy to deflect from their overall dismal human rights record. This paper explores these and other reasons why autocratic regimes adopt women’s rights and evaluates the extent of their claims to success. It contrasts autocratic countries of Mauritania, Uganda and Zimbabwe with more democratic countries of Botswana and Namibia based on a review of the media, 150 Zoom and Whatsapp interviews with women’s rights activists, government officials, journalists and others in these countries, and secondary sources.

Author

• Aili Mari Tripp, University of Wisconsin, Madison