Women’s Local Government Representation: An Assessment Of Influencing Factors

Abstract

In today’s political world, women's political representation is regarded as a crucial issue, especially in developing countries where women are often underrepresented and marginalized from accessing political leadership and power. In local government, which is the lowest tier of public administration, a number of challenges that range from lack of access to education and other resource and discriminatory laws to gender stereotypes and patriarchal nature of societies are confronted in ensuring women’s equal representation in local politics. With this perspective, this research article attempts to analyze influencing factors that impact women’s local government representation involving both challenges and prospects. Different factors are identified that positively and negatively contribute to women’s representation in local government. The overall findings of this review have significant implication for researchers, policymakers and political activists working towards women’s empowerment and gender equality in politics.