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7. The Second Generation: The Future of Women in Parliament The women who have remained in or entered Parliament with South Africa’s second democratic election, in 1999, are markedly distinct from the women who gained office in 1994. Simply stated, there has been a rapid “professionalization ” within this “second generation.” Women who are being actively recruited into parties now have political,educational,and occupational profiles different from those of the earlier cohort. Similarly, the women who have stayed in office are among those who were most prepared for the institutional norms and professional expectations of formal parliamentary politics.There are many reasons for this professionalization, including the self-selection of those leaving office, the recruitment of a different type of woman candidate, and an increased emphasis on training women for their lives as MPs. This professionalization of legislators is not confined to South Africa.First noted in Australia by Sawer (2000), who coined the term, this trend is evident throughout legislatures internationally. It may be less apparent in longstanding industrialized democracies, which have been attracting elite, affluent,formally educated professionals for generations.The trend becomes quite noticeable, however, in states new to democracy. Often these states are formed following a liberation struggle or a revolution, and the first set of leaders is drawn from the ranks of the democratic movement. The demands of office are often a mismatch for these activists, and the call back to grassroots politics is often too strong to resist.As both Sawer (2000) found in Australia and Camp (1998) noted Mexico, the professionalization of legislatures has specifically gendered consequences. Women who are broadly representative of resistance struggles or women’s movements are replaced by women 07.ch7.144-158/Britton 5/27/05 10:04 AM Page 144 with more affluent occupational backgrounds (Australia) or advanced educational achievements (Mexico). Geisler (2000) asserts that in the South African case, the very access to professional development and occupational skills necessary to excel in parliamentary life has been gendered.As “the backbone” of the struggle,women activists were focused on supporting the movement’s progress rather than their own. Women either found their access to training blocked or chose to focus on different community development skills.In contrast,“the avenues for selfdevelopment were . . . more accessible for ANC men” (Geisler 2000, 619). Therefore, men were generally more prepared to meet the demands of fashioning the democratic government and working in it. Tamale (1999, 119–21) discovered a similar trend in Uganda: women, including those in Parliament, had historically been denied access to skills such as public speaking and legislation , whereas men had developed these abilities through their lives in the public sphere. As early as 1996 the women’s leadership in the South African parliament began to focus on ending the gender gap within that institution through skills training and development (Geisler 2000). The women who remained in Parliament or won office in 1999 have thus received some job and skills training. From May to August 2003 I conducted additional research to understand the changes, or lack thereof, that had been implemented since the 1999 elections . My methodology was consistent with that of the interviews conducted in 1996–97, although the sample was somewhat smaller, a total of twenty women. Ironically, I encountered the most difficulty in gaining access to the ANC, but my access to the minority parties was almost unrestricted. I interviewed women across a broad ethnic spectrum,but as the subsequent discussion shows, these women enjoyed higher levels of educational and professional achievement than did those in the first cohort. Most strikingly these later interviews differed distinctly in tone and scope from the earlier ones. First, most of these interviews happened as scheduled, whereas it had usually taken two or three attempts to secure an interview in 1996–97. Second, these interviews lasted from forty-five to sixty minutes, whereas the earlier ones rarely lasted less than an hour and typically ran to two or three hours. Third, the two sets of interviews differed considerably in terms of the professionalism and party loyalty expressed. The women in the later cohort were warm and open, but their answers were generally brief and concise, indicating their previous experience with interviews. The fact that women so strongly maintained their party lines was striking, and it was especially pronounced within the ANC. On two occasions I was asked to turn The Future of Women in Parliament 145 07...

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