Apprehensions and the strengthening of gender equality: Uganda’s legal framework in perspective

Traditionally, informal occurrences like religion and practices like cultures may have been identified as the causes of gender inequality in economic and leadership opportunities in Uganda and Africa at large. These gender imbalances may have through these practices, operated to the advantages and disadvantages of genders, before the advent of Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, which heightened the gender equality campaign. Uganda, beginning with the 1995 Constitution and other enabling laws made on that authority, together with case laws, has progressively corrected and achieved the SDG targets of economic and leadership advantage on women even to the disadvantage of the male gender. While legislations with perceived imbalances considered discriminatory to the female gender have been amended, or even nullified, those considered discriminatory to the male gender have not received such heightened attention. Adopting the doctrinal methodology, appraising Uganda legal framework on gender issues; like the constitution, statutes, and judicial decisions, this work argues that Uganda has created equal opportunities for both genders and even surpassed same to the manifest disadvantage of the male gender. The paper concludes by stating that economic and political gender imbalance has been greatly reformed by the formal legal sector in Uganda, creating equality of opportunities; the paper argues that gender gaps may exist which do not translate to inequality. The paper commends Uganda for the legislative intervention and recommends the legislative model to other African countries.