Abstract: | Unlike many of its neighbours in Southern and East Africa, Botswana has not significantly increased the percentage of women in its National Assembly, despite being a signatory to the 1997 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declaration which committed countries to 30 percent women in positions of power and decisionmaking by 2005. Women made their greatest gains in the 1999 election, achieving a total of 17 percent women members of parliament in the National Assembly. This fell back to 11 percent in the 2004 election and 8 percent in the 2009 election. The author wonders why women's representation in parliament remains so low in Botswana, in particular in comparison with some Southern and East African neighbours. She finds that women's low representation in parliament in Botswana may be attributed to the lack of a political opening leading to the adoption of an electoral gender quota, the typical barriers to women's participation in politics, and insufficient effort on the part of political parties, especially during the primary election process. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |