IFG 8: Increasing Women’s Political Presence in West Africa

MIASA CC-BY-4.0: Poster IFG 8
Women exercising political power inside and outside formal political institutions
MIASA’s eighth Interdisciplinary Fellow Group (IFG 8) started from the observation that West Africa lags behind other parts of Africa in terms of women’s representation in formal political institutions like parliament and cabinet. During their stay at MIASA, the group explored the different ways in which women in West Africa exercise political power, but outside of the formal political space – as religious leaders, market women, aspirants for political office, among others.
The IFG 8 conference was hold on 16-17 May 2023. It demonstrated the fruitfulness of combining perspectives on women engaged in formal political institutions with those on women exercising power in informal settings. This approach reveals that women’s spaces have to be taken in consideration. These spaces are produced by women (for example, when founding a trade union), or follow from women’s actions (for example, when 19th century women used the new economic possibilities of the palm oil economy to create an imperium of women’s labor).
Transforming women’s spaces and diasporic movements
Changes in women’s spaces have also taken place through travelling and building new diasporic movements. In addition, creative and symbolic dimensions – found in songs but also in women’s missionary activities – are to be considered in order to understand women’s changing political spaces and agencies in West Africa. Hence, research on women’s political power cannot be understood with an exclusive view on formal political office.
Period: February to May 2023
Conveners: Prof. Akosua Darkwah and Prof. Gretchen Bauer
Members: Prof. Erdmute Alber, Dr. Ebony Coletu, Prof. Jacqueline-Bethel Mougoué
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teammiasa (January 24, 2024). IFG 8: Increasing Women’s Political Presence in West Africa. Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa - Blog. Retrieved March 26, 2025 from https://miasa.hypotheses.org/2107