Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Women Participation in Sub-National Level Politics in Ghana's Fourth Republic

George Asekere

Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences · pp. 44–58 · Published 11 Dec 2020

10.9734/arjass/2020/v12i330192

Abstract

Debate over the factors that perpetuate male dominance in political representation all over the world continues. Several factors have been cited, including the fact that women have a weak foundation in political party leadership which forms the basis for subsequent progression in leadership. In spite of the fact that women have the capacity to compete favorably in national politics if they have a say in choosing who stands for elections at political party level, several studies tend to pay less attention on women’s leadership in political parties at the subnational level. Using qualitative methods, the paper makes a contribution to women’s participation in political leadership using the two dominant political parties, the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party, that have alternated political power in Ghana since the return to constitutional rule in 1993. Findings showed that women’s representation in political party leadership at the subnational level mirrors national trends, albeit some local particularities including unfavorable meeting time where such decisions are taken. The paper concludes that the creation of the women’s wings in Ghanaian political parties and the institutionalization of financial waivers for women are necessary but not sufficient conditions to boost women activism in subnational party politics.

Sub-national participation politics Fourth Republic.

References (18)

  1. 1 Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches
  2. 2 Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques
  3. 3 Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality. [DOI]
  4. 4 Barriers to Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Research [DOI]
  5. 5 Qualitative Research Methods
  6. 6 What factors explain women's empowerment? Decision-making among small-scale farmers in Uganda [DOI]
  7. 7 Women's Organizing in Ghana since the 1990s: From individual organizations to three coalitions [DOI]
  8. 8 We would rather be leaders than parliamentarians: women and political office in Ghana [DOI]
  9. 9 Women's absence in Sri Lankan politics: Lessons on the effectiveness and limitations of quotas to address under-representation [DOI]
  10. 10 ‘Let there be a Balance’: Women in African Parliaments [DOI]
  11. 11 Women's Participation and Representation in Politics: Perspectives from Ghana [DOI]
  12. 12 Issues in Ghana's Electoral Politics [DOI]
  13. 13 Historicising The Women’s Manifesto for Ghana: A culmination of women’s activism in Ghana [DOI]
  14. 14 “Did You See What Happened to the Market Women?” Legacies of Military Rule for Women’s Political Leadership in Ghana? [DOI]
  15. 15 Anatomy of Ghana’s parliamentary elections and democratic consolidation [DOI]
  16. 16 Why we march! Feminist activism in critical times: Lessons from the women's march on Washington [DOI]
  17. 17 Gender in political parties: Ghana's 2016 general elections [DOI]
  18. 18 Qualitative methods for health research [DOI]

Cited by 3

The 2020 General Elections in Ghana: An Analysis of the Issues, Voting Pattern and Impact

George Asekere · Social Sciences · 2021

Women and Politics

Aili Mari Tripp · 2013

Showing 2 of 3 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

12

Page views

0

PDF downloads

9

Outbound clicks

3

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.