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Making the Invisible Visible: African Women in Politics and Policy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Jean F. O'Barr
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Extract

Political science as a discipline has ignored women in its research and consequently in its literature. Cathartic ranting and raving by feminist political scientists about the blindness of their male colleagues will not bring out the fundamental issues. The shortsightedness of political scientists about the political role? of women is not merely a function of the attitudes of the discipline's practitioners (the vast majority of whom have always been males). Nor can the whole problem of how political science views women be discarded with the observation that women are rarely influential actors in public activities and therefore do not merit the serious attention of observers of political life.

The invisibility of women in political science stems from the traditional concerns and emphases of the discipline which come, in turn, from its largely Western setting. By examining politics in other cultural settings, we can come to understand why women have received so little attention in political science. Only with a significant expansion of its scope can the discipline incorporate women into its analyses. The changing circumstances of politics around the world now mandates such an expansion. Nowhere is this more obviously the case than in Africa. Before examining how and why political scientists have ignored African women, it is important to review briefly political science as a discipline.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , December 1975 , pp. 19 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1975

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Patricia Cole for her research assistance in preparing this manuscript.

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