ABSTRACT

The world over, the number of women elected to public office has been increasing. The current percentage of women in all national parliamentary structures, upper and lower houses combined, stands at 20.4 percent, a significant improvement over 11.7 percent (1997) less than two decades ago. According to Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), countries such as Uganda are showing high prospects in implementing affirmative action in the country. Although little research has been conducted on women's substantive representation in some developing countries that have recently reached the milestone of electing more than 30 percent women in national parliaments, Uganda as a case study attempts to answer whether women parliamentarians have, in fact, been able to shift the debate and increase the parliamentary response on issues of gender equality. In the case of Uganda, the role of men is salient, but the over-arching importance of men parliamentarians can be imputed from the first two lessons in Uganda. Men parliamentarians have a primacy over strategically important leadership positions both in parties and in governments: globally, women represent only 17 percent of minister-level and parliamentary leadership positions. Men outnumber women in politics by large magnitudes and are critical members of coalitions to support the passage of gender-targeted legislation. Strategies that include men parliamentarians and enable them to understand their stake in the gender equality agenda have a positive effect on the passage of gender-targeted legislation.