Gender equitable change and the place of informal networks in Uganda’s legislative policy reforms
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Date
2020
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ESID
Abstract
Uganda has had an uneven history and experience around gender equity policy reforms, particularly, from the late 1980s and early 1990s to-date. These range from the countrywide constitutional review processes of the early 1990s, legislative
activism and reforms around domestic relations, land/property rights, and women’saccess to public position, to mention but a few.
While some of these gender reforms (commonly promoted through women’s collective mobilisation) were successful,
other legislative initiatives faced intense resistance. This paper compares three policy cases – the 1997 Universal Primary Education policy, the 1998 legislative reform around spousal co-ownership of land and the 2010 Domestic Violence Act. Drawing
on feminist institutionalism, the paper explores how gender norms operate within institutions (both formal and informal) and how institutional processes construct, reproduce or challenge gender power dynamics in policy reforms. The paper
examines the place of informal networks and raises critical questions regarding waysin which women emerge as critical actors in
securing and consolidating gender change, the strategies they draw upon to negotiate resistance, and whether the
nature of policy reform influences the kind of resistance and (in effect) counterstrategies used to negotiate resistance to gender change. We also assess the implications
Description
Keywords
gender equity, informal networks, doctrinal, institutions
Citation
Ahikire, J., & Mwiine Ashaba, A. (2020). Gender equitable change and the place of informal networks in Uganda’s legislative policy reforms.