Parity, decentralization and training of elected officials in Senegal
The effective participation of women in decision-making is one of the main strategies for improving their status in society. Not only does it help to achieve equal opportunities for men and women in the exercise of power, it also contributes to changing collective perceptions of women’s role in society.
In Senegal, this vision took shape with Law no. 2010-11 of May 28, 2010, instituting absolute parity in elective and semi-elective assemblies. With the parity law, the government has taken specific measures to ensure that women have equal access to representation and full participation in decision-making at national and local levels: the National Assembly, the High Council of Local Authorities, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, and departmental and municipal councils. The law has led to a sharp increase in women’s representation in political bodies.
In the French National Assembly, for example, women accounted for 42% and 43% of seats respectively after the 2012 and 2017 elections (12th and 13th legislatures), compared with just 24% in 2007 (11th legislature). But parity has been even more significant in the territories, where it has enabled the number of women elected locally to triple, from 15% in 2009 to 47% in 2014.
However, this historic experiment in parity raises a number of questions: beyond the arithmetic of representation by gender, has the application of the parity law significantly altered the characteristics of elected representatives and the perceptions of political staff and the general public? Do the political preferences of elected women systematically differ from those of elected men? Do these differences (if established) translate in practice into public policies in such a way as to generate different outcomes and impacts on the well-being of the population?
The aim of the PAPEF project was to identify the obstacles hindering the full and effective participation of women in local assemblies, despite the application of the law on parity and the deepening of decentralization (Act 3).
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