Womens Movement and Political Change in West Africa

22 PAGES (9711 WORDS) Gender Studies Paper
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 In the present wave of increasing democratization, women’s movements remain critical to the advancement of democratic reforms and political change. In Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the focus of this analysis, women have mobilized around human and economic rights and peace and security over the last two decades with some considerable success although not without challenges. This paper examines emerging trends in the agenda and tools/strategies that the women’s movements have employed in their activisms. It draws from various documented, theoretical and empirical evidences to reveal shifts in agenda such as the increasing push for leadership, policy reforms and development, transnational movement-building and feminist agenda. In the process, strategies used have included networking, multimedia platforms, mass mobilization, research and documentation and inter-generational and cross gender dialogues. It concludes that such shifts position the women’s movements strategically for moving political change in an increasingly democratizing West Africa. 

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