Uppsala Forum Guest Lecture: Why African Autocracies Promote Women as Leaders

Although historically, democratic countries generally have had stronger outcomes in advancing gender equality than other regime types, many authoritarian countries in Africa have proven rather adept at adopting women’s rights provisions, making extensive constitutional and legislative reforms. These outcomes are particularly evident when it comes to women’s political representation, where one finds little difference between authoritarian and democratic regimes in Africa, particularly those that have entrenched ruling parties which have remained in power for over three electoral cycles.

The lecture will discuss why authoritarian countries promote women as leaders in Africa in the context of the end of major conflict, changing international gender norms, and the introduction of multipartyism in the early 1990s. The paper is based on a book project, drawing on crossnational research in Africa and over 150 in-depth interviews in Mauritania, Morocco, Uganda, and Zimbabwe as well as two democracies: Namibia and Botswana.

Aili Mari Tripp is Vilas Research Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US. She is author of several award-winning books, including Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies Adopt Women’s Rights (2019), Women and Power in Postconflict Africa (2015), Museveni’s Uganda (2010), and African Women’s Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes (2009) with Isabel Casimiro, Joy Kwesiga, and Alice Mungwa, as well as Women and Politics in Uganda (2000).  Currently she is lead editor of the American Political Science Review.