The impact of the electoral system on the level of women’s legislative representation in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

In just two decades after the demise of apartheid in South Africa, women’s legislative representation has grown in leaps and bounds rising from nearly nothing to over 40%, which is twice the world average of 20%. While this trend can be attributed to a number of factors, this paper casts a spotlight on the role of the electoral system structure vis-à-vis the changes in women’s representation. The paper investigates how the proportional representation system and its associated features such as the use of closed lists, multimember constituencies and a large district magnitude have influenced increased women’s electoral representation in post-apartheid South Africa. The paper further argues that while the electoral system has played an important role in the rise of women’s representation, this explanation is hardly sufficient as statistics show that the rapid increase of female representatives is linked, among other factors, to the African National Congress 50/50 gender quota which has seen it contributing more than 75% of women representation in the National Assembly.

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