An assessment of women’s political citizenship in Lesotho and Zimbabwe using the Global Gender Gap Index Framework

Goal 5 of the United Nations Global Goals calls on all nations to take measures that will ensure gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by the year 2030. However, the various obstacles women continue to face in Southern Africa mean that there are very few prospects that this goal will be met in the set time-frame. In this research, we assess the levels of women’s participation in politics in Southern Africa using the Global Gender Gap index (GGGI) framework, with Zimbabwe and Lesotho being our case studies. The GGGI is a composite index which annually benchmarks the state of gender parity across four key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. In this research, we particularly make use of the political empowerment sub-index, which is the one directly relevant for our study. We envisage that the study indicates the status of inclusive and equal citizenship in these two societies. Such knowledge is important for gender mainstreaming government action and policy decisions. We believe that gender parity in the context of political empowerment unlocks a host of other capabilities for women both in public and domestic spaces.