Gendered attitudes and women's political interest: the cases of South Africa and Ghana

Abstract

This thesis situates the issue of women’s political representation in a socio-cultural context by examining the relationship between gendered attitudes and women’s political interest in South Africa and Ghana. South Africa represents an African country with higher women’s legislative representation, and Ghana represents a country with low women’s legislative representation on the continent. “Women having less interest in politics than men” is a well-researched area in political attitudes studies (Campbell and Winters, 2008: Anderson, 1975; Burns 2001; Fox and Lawless, 2010). However, less is known about the underline cause of this difference. This thesis argues that socio-cultural factors such as patriarchy, gendered roles, and cultural beliefs are to be blamed for the presence of “gendered attitudes,” which have consequently affected “women’s interest in politics.” I use data from the World Values Survey and bivariate statistics to answer the following questions: (1) are South African and Ghanaian women less interested in politics than men? (2) do gendered attitudes affect women’s political interest in Ghana and South Africa? Findings from the analysis reveal, (1) women in Ghana and South Africa are generally less interested in politics than men. (2) there is a relationship between gendered attitudes and women’s political interest in Ghana and South Africa. Findings from this thesis provide a start to a meaningful conversation. More research is needed to better understand the relationship between gendered attitudes and women’s interest in politics.