Despite forming the majority, rallying behind men has been the little contribution Gambian women

endure in politics and elections. As the country’s political temperature rises towards the next

cycle of elections; presidential, parliamentary and local government elections will this trend

continue? Women’s Bantabaa tells the story.
It is imperative that for good governance to take place and for women to participate fully in the

democratization process, there is a great need not just to be consulted but instead should take a

leading and active role in the decision-making at all levels and sectors.

The end result is that politics and power has become a masculinised sphere of activity and men’s

voices in describing and prescribing for the world is therefore considered more authentic.  By

democracy, we refer to the political system where the people in a given society have the right and

the possibility to participate freely as individuals or groups, directly or indirectly (through a

free electoral process and choose their respective representatives), in managing the affairs of the

society they live.
 Women’s absence and exclusion from politics and sometimes policy making, the non existence of

structures to raise women’s concerns to the national agenda and low levels of awareness of their

rights and potential (particularly at the grass root level) have subjected women to abject poverty

and powerlessness. 
“When we look at The Gambia, at the moment, we have very few women in the National Assembly. There

are no women Commissioners at the divisional level, no women chiefs at the district level and there

are only three women alkalolu (village heads) at ward level.  This absence of representation at this

critical grass root level is what is reflected in the National Assembly.  The women need to start

from the bottom and come up.  The most revealing thing about the private sphere belonging to the

women and the public sphere belonging to the men is the recent formation of the National Youth

Council to which no young woman was elected nationwide and one had to be nominated by government to

sit on the council.  So far, society is far behind government in coming up with corrective measures

towards gender mainstreaming”, Vice President Njie-Saidy was quoted saying.
Participation in politics requires resources such as time and wealth.  The majority of women have

little or no resources.  Poverty is another factor denying Gambian women to access a better training

to explore their talents.  The problem of finance is further aggravated by cultural gender bias;

women have lesser access to credit, education and employment opportunities.  While economic

empowerment is a prerequisite to political participation, women’s limitations can be traced to the

restrictive attitudes and perceptions of what they are capable of doing in the society.  A lack of

self esteem or confidence in their own power is evident among many women and show their inability to

control their own lives and consequently as well as resources.
In building women’s leadership capacity, it is important to look at what is working for the

community and its sustainability which can be built upon. The capacity needs association of women in

decision-making. It is true that some of the highest positions in the country are held by women the

vice president and the speaker of the National Assembly which has been held by women in the current

and last legislative councils.
A Gender Network spearheaded by the ACDHR consisting of women’s rights CSOs is set up to advance the

cause of women and advocate for women’s political participation and representation in top decision-

making positions. But how effective is this?
The fact that women are certainly under-represented in the area of politics is not a unique

situation to The Gambia.  It has been established that even in developed countries, women are

under-represented in politics.  This is because the domain of politics has been associated with

attributes such as physical strength, power, thuggery, autonomy, independence and rationality, which

is all typical associated with masculinity which tend not to be favorable to women.
In analyzing these, the gender based ideology creates gender stereotype, which are institutionalized

through structural mechanisms in place in society.  This could be through educational and religious

institutions, customary beliefs and practices, the legal and power structures.  Gender hierarchies

that privilege men’s knowledge and experiences prevent us from understanding that.

Gender hierarchies that privilege men’s knowledge and experiences prevent us from understanding that

these experiences have formed the basis of most of our knowledge about active politics. Making

women’s experiences visible allows us to understand how gender relations have contributed to the

structural inequalities in political participation.
It is only in understanding how the structures that offer to assist women’s participation in

politics have performed within the given structures that possible changes can be instituted to

enhance a more inclusive approach to politics.  The inclusion of women in politics will go a long

way in enhancing National Development.
Besides financial resources, the time factor is also critical for women.  Due to our cultural

settings, the women are still pre-occupied with domestic and family obligations that take up a large

portion of their time. Women continue to play the triple role of producers, maintainers and

reproducers. To be able to cope with all these responsibilities, women are expected to have and

operate on an elastic concept of time.  Sometimes, this elasticity is not high enough to allow them

participate in public activities.