Institutionalized Patriarchy Beyond Representation: Rurality, Gender, and Political Participation Among Amazigh Women in Morocco

The objective of this article is to examine how gendered institutional practices constrain the substantive political participation of Amazigh-speaking women elected to local councils in Morocco. Although constitutional reforms, gender quotas, and the official recognition of Amazigh have expanded women’s formal political representation, less attention has been paid to the institutional processes that continue to restrict their effective participation in local governance. Existing studies have primarily attributed women’s political marginalization to sociocultural and structural factors, while paying comparatively limited attention to how everyday institutional arrangements reproduce unequal opportunities for political participation. Drawing on Feminist Institutionalism, the Capability Approach, Bourdieu’s concept of linguistic capital, Spivak’s notion of subaltern silencing, and intersectionality, this study examines how linguistic, spatial, and temporal arrangements operate as interconnected mechanisms of exclusion. Focusing on the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region as a case study, the analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with elected women councilors and local government officials. The findings indicate that the institutional dominance of Arabic in council deliberations, the organization of meetings in male-dominated spaces such as rural cafés, and the scheduling of meetings at times that conflict with women’s social responsibilities can collectively constrain Amazigh-speaking women’s ability to understand political debates, participate effectively in deliberations, and influence decision-making processes. These practices suggest that gendered institutional inequalities can be reproduced not only through explicit legal discrimination, but also through routine institutional arrangements embedded in the everyday functioning of local councils. The article argues that substantive political participation depends not only on formal legal representation but also on equitable access to the linguistic, spatial, and temporal conditions required for meaningful democratic deliberation. It contributes to the debate on women’s political participation by showing how apparently ordinary institutional rules, routines, spaces, and practices can reproduce gendered inequalities and thereby contribute to the persistence of institutionalized patriarchal relations.