Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa, and: African Women's Movements: Changing Political Landscapes (review)

Over the past decade, a spate of new books and articles has documented the hard-fought political battles of contemporary sub-Saharan African women, as well as their many significant accomplishments. By and large, the books record and reflect upon events on the ground in Africa over the last two decades. In some cases, African women's movements have been at the forefront of struggles to overthrow authoritarian regimes and usher in more democratic ones; in others they have taken early advantage of the first political openings brought about by such transformations. In the course of the ensuing transitions, women have lobbied hard for a range of reforms, often beginning with progressive constitutions and moving on to tackle questions of political representation at the national and local level, new legislation in key areas affecting women, or gender mainstreaming and national machineries for women. Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa and African Women's Movements: Changing Political Landscapes are important recent contributions to this growing literature.

Despite its title, Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa focuses largely on the case of Ghana, where—at least in the beginning—women only cautiously embraced the transition to democracy that commenced in 1992. By the end of the decade, however, women's organizations had formed coalitions to work toward specific goals—ending the serial killings that had haunted the women of Accra, lobbying for a domestic violence bill, launching a women's manifesto, and demanding economic rights for women. In rich and convincing detail over several chapters, Kathleen Fallon describes the primary obstacles that prevented women from initially becoming more engaged in formal politics—summarized as "fear remaining from the authoritarian regime, the existence of a large state-run women's organization, limited access to donor funding, and divisions and fragmentation between and within women's organizations" (124–25). Fallon explains how Ghanian women eventually overcame these obstacles, noting that while, on the one hand, "pre-existing gender structures" may enable women to reclaim political space, on the other hand, "current masculinist political structures and agendas" place women at a distinct disadvantage. However, by drawing upon their familiarity with and participation in informal political systems and participation in women's organizations, women are often able to overcome these challenges, as they eventually did in Ghana. Fallon's impressive interview and survey material collected in the late 1990s and early 2000s is effectively deployed throughout the book.

Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa deepens our understanding of the African women's activism that coincided with democratization across the continent in the 1990s and 2000s. This book offers valuable insights into an African case that is not "post-conflict," but rather merely "post-transition." Many of the most significant accomplishments for women, as far as women's political representation and legal reform are concerned, have been in postconflict countries such as Rwanda and Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa, and these cases have also been much more thoroughly analyzed. In some respects the challenges for change are even greater in those countries that are not "post-conflict," as Fallon's book suggests. At the same time, while Fallon attempts to make sweeping generalizations about African women's movements on the basis of the Ghana experience alone, Ghana's experience may be generalizable, at best, to only about eight or nine other African countries. In Ghana even more could be achieved if some kind of electoral gender quota were adopted for legislative elections, and this could be accomplished...