Perspectives

Throughout the history of social and political movements in African societies, generations of women have, in one way or another, worked to oppose patriarchal domination, laws and practices in the pursuit of gender equality; advocating for their equal participation in all aspects of social, economic and political life. Despite this tradition of women-centred and anti-patriarchal organising, it is only in the last few decades, partly due to efforts to entrench women’s emancipation and gender equality in development goals, that feminism in Africa has evolved as an explicit ideological and political concept.