Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

YOUNG AFRICAN WOMEN ENGAGE THE
PUBLIC SPHERE; PROSPECTS FOR AN
INTERDISCIPLINARY INQUIRY?
Roseline M. Achieng
MONASH UNIVERSITY – AUSTRALIA
INTRODUCTION
Revisiting the Think Piece
WRITING IN 2005 AT THE REQUEST OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH IN AFRICA (CODESRIA), for a special issue of their
Bulletin dedicated to the African woman and, which was to mark 20
years of development or is it non-progress in gender related questions,
many issues, termed feminist issues, struck me as completely lacking a
social base. Quite a sweeping statement, one would argue. Nonetheless,
my view was that the missing social base is in the sense that it was a
struggle by a few for many who did not recognize with the resistance,
and if they did, saw the agenda as speaking out of context. Taking stock,
as I termed my introductory paragraph in the think piece, looked at
the incremental gains that the women’s movement had achieved so
far. My analysis then was based on the well researched and highly
provocative United Nation Research in Development (UNRISD) 2005
Report [1] . Some of the achievements that the report identified were
as follows: In the educational sector. The write-up made mention of
the increased number of girl-children and their move from primary
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YOUNG AFRICAN WOMEN
ENGAGE THE PUBLIC
SPHERE; PROSPECTS FOR
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY
INQUIRY?
Roseline M. Achieng
1
Gender equality: striving for justice in an unequal world. UNRISD 2005, http://www.
unrisd.org/publication/html