Gender-Based Violence and Femicide as Substantive Women’s Representation

A major issue around the concept of the substantive representation of women is the contention of what women’s interests means. The contestation on defining women’s interests led feminist political theorists to advocate for a shared perspective among women as a group to consolidate calls for more engagement between women politicians and women populace. Feminist scholars and gender theorists note that collaborative procedures of interest articulation, rather than just the perspective of one legislator, are the best ways to define ‘women’s interests’ (Lovenduski 2005; Childs 2004; Dahlerup 2006). There are too many issues affecting women to assume on a centralised and universal notion of “women’s interests”. This does not mean that they are no common areas that women can agree upon, for instance, violence against women, menstrual hygiene, and gender pay gap are some of the very many issues that can be categorised as women issues. Gender-based violence and femicide remains one of the prevalent problems that women in Africa face. The prevalence and severity of GBVF cases across Africa makes it an important issue that affect women all over the continent, and thus, it is necessary to understand if numbers translate to impact in the broader discussion on women’s political representation. Thus, the reduction of GBVF is used as an index to measure the substantive representation of women in both countries and the extent to which legislations/policy can help address it.