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Mauritius: Still a Long Journey Ahead

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The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights

Part of the book series: Gender and Politics ((GAP))

Abstract

This chapter examines women’s participation and presence in politics in Mauritius. While Mauritius has excelled in most democratic indicators in terms of maintaining stable governance, rule of law and successful holding of democratic elections at regular intervals, yet it has been slow in improving gender equality in politics. Women have slowly integrated into the political system, but their presence in parliament and in executive positions of political parties remains low. Drawing from data gathered from semi-structured interviews conducted with women politicians and independent women activists, this chapter examines why women’s representation in Mauritian politics has been minimal since independence. Ramtohul attributes the systematic marginalization of women in politics to the focus on ethnic and religious political representation as well as the entrenched patriarchal and conservative culture.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Mauritius, Moka, Mauritius

    Ramola Ramtohul

Authors
  1. Ramola Ramtohul
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ramola Ramtohul .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Susan Franceschet

  2. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Mona Lena Krook

  3. McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Netina Tan

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© 2019 The Author(s)

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Cite this chapter

Ramtohul, R. (2019). Mauritius: Still a Long Journey Ahead. In: Franceschet, S., Krook, M.L., Tan, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59074-9_37

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