Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Conditions Necessary for Increasing the Percentage of Women in African Parliaments

Many African countries have committed to supporting quests to include women in decision making platforms and many African national assemblies have women representation, however, the number of women representatives in parliament remain far from gender parity in many countries. There are, however, several notable cases where the number of women in parliament is relatively high, for instance, the leading country in the world in terms of women’s representation in parliament, is in Africa.

Many African countries have committed to supporting quests to include women in decision making platforms and many African national assemblies have women representation, however, the number of women representatives in parliament remain far from gender parity in many countries. There are, however, several notable cases where the number of women in parliament is relatively high, for instance, the leading country in the world in terms of women’s representation in parliament, is in Africa. The factors that led to such a high performance are analysed in this chapter along with other countries that have achieved more than 40% of women representation in parliament. The chapter deployed a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis approach to ascertain conditions that are necessary for African countries to maximize the number of women in parliament. The configuration of factors that lead to a high number of women in parliament are constituted by a constellation of factors such as electoral system, type of quotas, quota targets, reduction of gender gaps in significant indicators and the role of political parties.