‘The more educated the better?’ Educational achievement and women’s voices during deliberation in the Ugandan parliament

Abstract

For years, women’s access to and consumption of quality education has been the outcry of the feminist movement and modern-day development initiatives like the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. Even with progress such as the introduction of free elementary and secondary education, the gender gap nevertheless widens at higher levels of education (tertiary levels). This is evident in Uganda where men tend to achieve higher levels of educational qualifications than women. This study, therefore, aims at establishing the extent to which women’s educational achievement influences their voices during parliamentary deliberations. By employing a qualitative phenomenological and retrospective research design, women’s voices in two bills are analysed. Additionally, one-on-one interviews were carried out with long-serving Ugandan parliamentarians to identify their opinions on the influence of women’s educational achievement on their voices during legislative deliberations in parliament. Findings reveal that education as a whole, and most importantly higher levels of tertiary education, significantly influenced the voices of women legislators. As such, the study appreciates the need for the provision of alternative educational options to enhance women’s voices in parliament.

Pendant des années, l'accès à et la consommation d'une éducation de qualité pour les femmes ont constitué le tollé du mouvement féministe et des initiatives de développement modernes comme les Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement et les Objectifs de développement durable. Même avec des progrès tels que l'introduction de l'enseignement primaire et secondaire gratuit, l'écart entre les sexes se creuse au niveau de l'enseignement supérieur (niveaux tertiaires), une situation évidente en Ouganda. Les hommes ont davantage tendance à obtenir des diplômes supérieurs que les femmes. Cette étude visait donc à déterminer dans quelle mesure la réussite scolaire des femmes influençait leurs voix lors des délibérations au parlement. En utilisant une conception de recherche phénoménologique et rétrospective qualitative, les voix des femmes dans le cadre de deux projets de loi ont été analysées et des entretiens individuels ont été menés avec des parlementaires ougandais de longue date pour identifier leurs points de vue sur l'influence de la réussite scolaire des femmes sur leurs voix lors des délibérations législatives au parlement. Les résultats ont révélé que l'éducation dans son ensemble et surtout les niveaux supérieurs d'enseignement supérieur avaient une influence significative sur la voix des femmes législatrices. L'étude a apprécié le besoin de proposer des options éducatives alternatives pour renforcer la voix des femmes au parlement.

Keywords:

• education achievement
• deliberation
• level of education
• type of education
• voice

Mots clés:

• Voix
• femmes
• délibération
• niveau d'études
• type d'études
• réussite scolaire

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the assistance granted by the management of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh. The access to library resources was crucial in refining this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Statement of Ethics

Ethical approval was obtained from the ethics committee at University University of Buea. Permission to conduct the interviews for the purposes of this research was obtained from each community leader/local authority. All respondents were fully informed about the purposes of this research and how their responses would be used and stored. The research was conducted with approval from University of Buea. All interviewees have been anonymised and gave consent to be interviewed for the purposes of this research. The interviewer clearly communicated the scope and purpose of the research project to all interviewees. All interviewees gave consent to be interviewed for the purposes of this research. All interviewees also consented to interviews being used for publication purposes.

Ethical statement

Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences, Pan African University, Cameroon. Permission to conduct the interviews for the purposes of this research was obtained from each community leader/local authority. All respondents were fully informed about the purposes of this research and how their responses would be used and stored.