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K-State Today

August 29, 2013

Tushabe publishes analysis of Ugandan politics and policies in regard to gender equality

Submitted by Michele Janette

Caroline Tushabe, assistant professor of women's studies, shares her analysis of Ugandan politics and policies in regard to gender equality. “Politics of Change: The Notion of ‘Giving’ and Feminist Struggle in Uganda” is published in "Regime Change and Succession Politics in Africa: Five Decades of Misrule," edited by Maurice N. Amutabi and Shadrack W. Nansong’o and published by Routledge Press.

Tushabe problematizes the "no change" paradigm in Uganda’s politics and the notion of "giving" power to women, showing how this approach has weakened gender activism for shared and decentralized power, influential public opinion, democracy and accountability.

Focusing on Uganda’s politics under the leadership of president Yoweri Museveni since 1986, Tushabe explicates various ways in which women are positioned to remain locked in colonial-patriarchal institutions. Despite official policies of gender equity and a supposed ethic of accountability on the part of the government, Tushabe reveals that the presence of women at all levels of government does little to ameliorate decentralized power in Uganda. She proposes alternative transformative routes, ones that remain attentive to differences of people's gender, class, region and age and insist on full governmental accountability as governments attempt to increase political participation and improving standards of living.