No Shortcuts to Power: African Women in Politics and Policy Making (review)

Goetz and Hassim provide a significant contribution to theorizing about women and political parties in Africa, and they offer useful guidance to feminist activists by combining analytical analysis with clear case studies of what has worked and what has failed. They place their work within the current move in feminist scholarship from analyzing women's activism in democratic transitions to examining women's capacity to push a gender equity agenda once they are in office. They specifically reject the "antipolitical" focus of much policy research, which concentrates on bureaucratic gender machinery as the significant mechanism for advancing feminist goals. As they argue, gender machinery can easily become an underfunded dead end for activists, who find themselves far from the centers of party and parliamentary power. Goetz and Hassim, along with the other authors in this book, seek instead to look at the politics in parties and parliaments and local councils, hoping to promote more analysis of how women "can enter and make an impact in the key institutions of representative democracy" (12).

The book focuses on Uganda and South Africa, current "trailblazers" in bringing greater numbers of women into formal politics, but it goes well beyond the specifics of those countries. Introductory chapters by the editors provide analytical overviews, and succeeding pairs of chapters on Uganda and South Africa provide case studies of attempts to advance gender equity in national and local government. The overview chapters succinctly synthesize current scholarship on women's activism in "new democracies," and provide a sophisticated and nuanced analytical frame for future comparative work on possibilities "for the entry of feminists into politics" (8; authors' emphasis). They distinguish "descriptive" representation (counting women) from "substantive" representation (a significant presence of active feminists), considering the former necessary but insufficient. They examine issues of access, influence, "voice," and accountability, and they evaluate the different mechanisms to guarantee women significant power and influence. On the basis of original empirical work and reference to existing scholarship, the authors identify four key variables for the success of gender equity agendas: formal party commitment to gender equity, strong left parties, the organization of women's structures within parties, and the continuing presence of a strong women's movement outside parties—which requires a political space for civil society organizations outside the control of a dominant party. But even when all four factors are present, they argue, gender equity is still advanced only through protracted struggle. Formal commitment to social equality and democracy is no guarantee of support of gender equity legislation, but it can provide an opening for feminist politicians (men as well as women), and parties may choose to "demonstrate" their commitment to social equality by pursuing gender equity goals (especially when, as currently in South Africa, political parties are criticized for pursuing a neoliberal economic agenda).

Sheila Meintjes's chapter on domestic violence legislation in South Africa demonstrates the importance of an autonomous women's movement; by contrast, Sheila Kawamara-Mishambi and Irene Ovonji-Odida show how attempts to include women's property rights in the 1998 Land Act in Uganda were derailed by President Museveni. Josephine Ahikire (writing on Uganda) and Likhapha Mbatha (on South Africa) detail how conservative "traditional authorities" in rural areas can impede the efforts of women in local government, even when formal mechanisms assure significant levels of representation. By providing specific case studies, such chapters challenge the received wisdom in the United States that local politics provides the easiest access for women and for feminists.

This is an important book, at two levels. Addressing theory, it marks a shift in feminist analysis toward feminist successes and failures once women are in political office. Addressing practice, it is useful both for those trying to understand these processes, and for activists (inside as well as outside government) who seek to transform democratic politics, policy, and society. Its lucid writing and its combination of analysis and clear case...