Global efforts to increase women’s political representation often frame the issue as a universal challenge. Yet Africa presents a notable exception: the continent has produced numerous female heads of state (in 25 of 54 African countries, women have served as either president, vice president, or premier), and boasts some of the highest rates of female legislative representation in the world. Rwanda, for example, leads globally with 64% of parliamentary seats held by women, more than double the rate in the United States.
What explains this record? In this paper, authors explore whether the roots of contemporary female political power in Africa lie in precolonial institutions, specifically, in places where women traditionally held political leadership roles. To test this, the authors compile two original datasets: one detailing female political leadership in precolonial societies and another on current female representation in local elections. They use these data to assess whether regions with a higher historical prevalence of traditional female political leadership also exhibit greater female representation in local political institutions today. They find the following:
- Female political power tends to persist over time. Females hold 13% more elected political seats, on average, in regions where females traditionally held political influence. This pattern holds even between pairs of neighboring ethnic groups where one traditionally permits female political leaders and the other does not, confirming a significant positive influence (of a similar magnitude) from traditional to contemporary female political power.
- Institutional changes enforced by colonial powers reversed some aspects of female political power. For example, political institutions created by colonial powers, particularly the British, were handed to men to control; and the political representation of women is less likely to persist in ethnicities that were split by colonial borders.
- Institutional, rather than economic, factors significantly shape the traditional political influence of women. There is a strong positive correlation between political centralization and female representation. In addition, cultural norms shape women’s political power differently across political structures. Matrilineality strengthens women’s political influence in centralized states, likely because dominant matrilineal clans gain prominence as states consolidate power. In contrast, matrilocality matters more in smaller, less centralized societies, where women may leverage kin-based solidarity to achieve representation.
Traditional female political power has a strong, persistent influence on the representation of females in local-level political institutions in sub-Saharan Africa today. Given that in many developing country contexts, particularly in rural areas, ethnic and lineage-based political institutions prevail, and can co-exist alongside more formal administrative units, it is pertinent to understand and acknowledge more broadly the influence of women in these enduring indigenous institutions.