BDP registers fewer female candidates for primaries

The low level of women’s participation in positions of authority cuts across the political divide. Analysts say challenges such as inequality and inadequate resources limit the participation of women in politics adding that the status quo is problematic. A study entitled, ‘Gender and Elections in Botswana’ by Dr Zitha Mokomane, lecturer in the Department of Population Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Botswana, posits that though women in Botswana have made steady progress in politics and decision-making positions, socio-economic and cultural processes and structures still place men at the pinnacle of political power.

“Gender is particularly important because it is generally accepted that ‘a government by men for men can’t claim to be a government for people by the people’ and that ‘the concept of democracy will only assume true and dynamic significance when political parties and national legislation are decided upon jointly by men and women with equitable regard for the interest and aptitudes of both halves of the population’,” Mokomane says.