Challenging Traditional Thinking on Electoral Systems

Abstract

In many ways, South Africa is an ideal case for examining the impact of electoral systems on the advancement of women into national office. Following decades of the antiapartheid struggle, women’s organizations and women leaders worked in concert to ensure a lasting place for women’s voice in decision making. These leaders benefited from the timing of this national transition to democracy. They used lessons from the international women’s movement and drew from the experiences of women in other postconflict contexts to prioritize a national gender agenda. Because of their efforts, in 2007, South Africa has 32.8 percent women in the National Assembly (NA), the lower house of parliament, bringing the country to the rank of fourteenth in the world in terms of women in national office (Inter-Parliamentary Union: www.ipu.org; April 2007). The choice of electoral system was one important aspect of this success, but that was only one piece of the country’s strategy.