The Women's Movement and Democratic Change

Abstract

The debate on the state, democracy, and civil society in Africa has tended to ignore the gender dimension and has generally adopted a "genderneutral" perspective. For example, elections, campaigns, and party politics have been viewed as gender-neutral processes that affect women and men equally. Similarly, the democratic process has also been treated as a gender-neutral process in which women and men have equal access to the resources, opportunities, and instruments that facilitate their participation and winning elections. Gender-neutral analysis also assumes a dichotomy between the public and private sphere so that all political activity takes place in the public sphere, from which the majority of women are excluded, due to the patriarchally determined division of labor. But a growing body of feminist literature has shown that the private is also political, and that political processes such as democratization take place both in private and public life. Furthermore, the concept of civil society must be broadened to include informal networks, associations, and coalitions in which women par-, ticipate (Jones 1993,236; Rowbotham 1992, 16-24; Peterson 1992,6; Parpart 1988,208-232; Tripp 1994b). This chapter takes as the point of departure the thesis that the institutions of the state, democracy, and the democratic process, as well as the phenomenon of civil society, are not gender-neutral. Hence, meaningful debate on and analysis of the dynamics of these phenomena and processes must account for the gender factor. As Tripp has observed: