Fourteen African countries have more women in their parliaments than the United States has in Congress.
Nonetheless, West Africa is still fighting an uphill battle for gender equality and for genuine democracy.
Susanna Wing, a visiting Political Science professor at Haverford College, held a talk on gender and democracy in West Africa yesterday afternoon in Irvine Auditorium.
"It is important to bring a gender perspective to our understanding of the democratic transition in Africa today," said Associate Director of African Studies Paul Kaiser, who currently teaches the course "Democracy in Africa."
In her lecture, Wing specifically pinpointed how legal reform of family and inheritance laws is the crucial first step to establishing genuine equality for women.
According to Wing, in the state of Mali, "Women do the bulk of the farm work, provide for the livelihood of their families, but are barred from owning the land they work." This results from Malian customs and religious ideology, which are in direct conflict with a woman's right to own land.
Though a rush of activism in the 1990s put many women in public office, right now these women find "it pays to be silent on the issues of gender inequality," Wing said. Thus, these issues do not surface in government deliberations unless civilian women demand it. The problem with that, Wing said, is that "education is critical to participation," and "education is still a question of money and economics."
She also stated that families do not want to send their daughters to school for fear they will be impregnated by strangers on the long walk there or even by their own teachers.
And Wing said that these social changes may be long in the making.
"It is only through dialogue that includes people from all communities -- women, Muslims and village elders -- that legal reform of family and inheritance law will finally be legitimately resolved," Wing said.
For College of General Studies senior Ata Cisse, this lecture had a personal note, since she is currently considering going to Mali.
College freshman Alix McKenna said she decided to attend the lecture after hearing about it through an e-mail.
"It sounded interesting," she said.
The lecture was followed by a discussion between Wing and the approximately 25-member audience.
Wing was brought to campus as part of a lecture series conducted by Penn's African Studies Center.
