The preference for male candidates is often influenced by public perceptions of women in political leadership. It is improbable that parties will select female candidates if public perception of women’s leadership is maintained.
As long as the electoral fortunes of political parties are not threatened by low levels of women representation on party lists, achieving the 2030 agenda on gender equality remains a mirage.
Therefore, breaking the negative bias against women in politics requires a new political socialization and mobilization strategy that eliminates the prejudices against women in politics through gender-specific political education, deliberate appointment and election of women into top party leadership positions and parliamentary seats, and lastly, recruitment of women into party leadership.
Bias manifests in other eligibility requirements that impede women’s candidacy, such as selection based on an individual’s loyalty and service to the party, financial status, leadership experience, and ethnic identity. These requirements have gendered consequences.
Some parties impose high membership fees and prohibitive fees for certain elective positions. Other parties require aspirants to obtain life membership of the party to qualify for the party nomination. These high costs, coupled with a deeply entrenched system of clientele politics endanger the political aspirations of women who are adjudged to be economically disadvantaged and with limited access to patronage networks.
Breaking the negative bias against women in politics requires a new political socialization and mobilization strategy that eliminates the prejudices against women in politics through gender-specific political education, deliberate appointment and election of women into top party leadership positions and parliamentary seats.
Amidst the overwhelming bias against women, some political parties design special interventions to promote women’s candidacy, such as special gender quotas financial waivers, and campaign support.
Where informal rules supersede formal selection criteria, female candidates encounter difficulty securing party nominations. The absence of clear rules creates tensions on how seats are allocated within parties. It makes the candidate selection process fluid and susceptible to capture.
According to UN Women, “women face several obstacles to participating in political life. Structural barriers through discriminatory laws and institutions still limit women’s options to run for office.”
There is no doubt that women’s political participation, not limited to their role as electorates enriches democracy and also pushes for more dividends of democracy to citizens and children across religious and ethnic lines. This is however lacking in Nigeria which has a National Assembly that portrays a picture of an unbalanced legislature that recently dimmed the light on gender-equality bills that could pave a way for more women in office.
In Nigeria’s 23 years of uninterrupted democracy, women have not ferried well. High-rate gender disparity, fueled by patriarchy in the country’s multi-ethnic and deeply religious setting have continued to impede women from holding political leadership.
However, some political parties have been giving female politician an edge through the waving of party nomination forms but many women politicians argue that consensus and zoning of political offices have often been used against women and this renders incentives such as free nomination forms useless.
To lessen gender disparities in party politics, parties are encouraged to uphold transparency and accountability in candidate selection. The credibility of a party’s candidate selection process impacts the level of electoral success a party achieves. Clear guidelines and regulations on party management, selection processes, and safeguarding gender inclusivity are integral to breaking the bias against women in politics.
