Impact of Gender Quotas on Substantive Women’s Representation: Perspectives from Botswana and South Africa

The assumption that women’s participation in politics enables the substantive representation of women is one that has been peddled for a long time, and the notion is titling towards affirming that women’s presence can ensure the protection of women as a collective group. Hence, this book’s rationale focuses on interrogating whether there is a relationship between the numbers of women participating in politics and protecting women’s interests, and more importantly, how the participation of women in politics impacts the reduction of the rate of GBVF in South Africa and Botswana. It further aims to recommend alternative pathways to ensure the substantive representation of women to reduce the dependence on female political leaders as advocates for women issues as the over-reliance on them may not yield positive results for representing women’s interests in Africa. This chapter is central achieving that objective as it uses data findings to understand the impact of women’s representation in politics beyond numbers.