Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa

Protest behaviour has been conceptualized as a high-risk form of political engagement, and it tends to elicit a relatively lower engagement rate than other forms of political participation. In Africa, the risky nature of protests is often complicated by the predominant socio-cultural bias and mascul...

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Main Author: Eugene Emeka Dim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2023-12-01
Series:Cogent Social Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311886.2023.2194731
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author Eugene Emeka Dim
author_facet Eugene Emeka Dim
author_sort Eugene Emeka Dim
collection DOAJ
description Protest behaviour has been conceptualized as a high-risk form of political engagement, and it tends to elicit a relatively lower engagement rate than other forms of political participation. In Africa, the risky nature of protests is often complicated by the predominant socio-cultural bias and masculine political norms that hinder women’s political agency. Many of these political systems in Africa are emerging democracies, where women are likely to be marginalized in the civic and political sphere. Using the Afrobarometer data of 2014/2015, this study seeks to examine the impact of the political context on the gender gap in protest behaviour. The study finds that the gender gap in protest behaviour is lower in countries that are politically free and higher in countries with more years of military regimes. These findings offer valuable insights into the political and institutional contexts in which women’s protest behaviour is accentuated and diminished.
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spelling doaj-art-124d91cda4714b08831f083ac09d88ba2025-08-20T02:36:30ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Social Sciences2331-18862023-12-019110.1080/23311886.2023.2194731Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in AfricaEugene Emeka Dim0Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaProtest behaviour has been conceptualized as a high-risk form of political engagement, and it tends to elicit a relatively lower engagement rate than other forms of political participation. In Africa, the risky nature of protests is often complicated by the predominant socio-cultural bias and masculine political norms that hinder women’s political agency. Many of these political systems in Africa are emerging democracies, where women are likely to be marginalized in the civic and political sphere. Using the Afrobarometer data of 2014/2015, this study seeks to examine the impact of the political context on the gender gap in protest behaviour. The study finds that the gender gap in protest behaviour is lower in countries that are politically free and higher in countries with more years of military regimes. These findings offer valuable insights into the political and institutional contexts in which women’s protest behaviour is accentuated and diminished.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311886.2023.2194731Africagender and politicspolitical contextprotest
spellingShingle Eugene Emeka Dim
Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa
Cogent Social Sciences
Africa
gender and politics
political context
protest
title Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa
title_full Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa
title_fullStr Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa
title_full_unstemmed Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa
title_short Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa
title_sort openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in africa
topic Africa
gender and politics
political context
protest
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311886.2023.2194731
work_keys_str_mv AT eugeneemekadim opennessofpoliticalstructuresandgendergapsinprotestbehaviourinafrica