Investigating the status quo regarding women and political participation in Kitwe district of Zambia.

The overarching focus of this study was to “Investigate the Status Quo Regarding Women and
Political Participation in Kitwe District of Zambia”. The study sought to explore the nature of
women participation in politics and to find out the factors that hindered women from
participating in active politics. Furthermore, the study was predicated on ascertaining the
strategies deployed for empowering women participation in politics. An exploration study
design was used with a qualitative approach. The study purposefully sampled 30 participants
from the four selected political parties and a women non-governmental organization. Semistructured interview guide and Focus Group discussion guide were used as data collection
instruments as well as document review checklist. Thematic approach was applied to analyse
the data after coding. The findings revealed that nature of women participation included sitting
on women desks in the party as well as managing leadership positions in line with women
representation and being a part of public rallies and mobilization teams. With regards to factors
that acted as hindrances against women participation in politics, findings revealed that, lack of
support from male counterparts, limited financial resources as well as socio-cultural
stereotypes acted as blockades for women penetration in mainstream politics of Kitwe district.
On strategies employed, the findings revealed that, lobbying for men support, championing the
50/50 threshold representation in parliament and political parties’ deliberate policies of women
support were among the key strategies that needed to be utilized. The study concluded that,
women participation can only increase in the political space when society unanimously rallies
behind them and drops the stereotypical mind-set that the only place of influence a woman
belongs to is the kitchen. Also normalising calls for 50/50 representation would be incentive
enough for women to appear in the political space. The study made four recommendations: The
church should begin to speak out and merge with women organizations to address women
representation in politics because decisions made by politicians affect all. Then political parties
themselves should remain true to advocating for 50/50 gender representation and there is need
to have implementation plans for the rolling out strategies of empowering women participation
in politics.
Key words: Political participation, women, status quo