Women, Power & Peacemaking in Africa

The talk is based on my current book project, which looks at one of  the consequences of the decline of conflict in Africa over the past 20 years. It explains why post-conflict countries in Africa have double the rates of female legislative representation compared with countries  that have not undergone conflict. It also looks at why these countries tend to have been more open to passing legislation and making constitutional changes relating to women's rights. The talk is based on comparative research across Africa as well as fieldwork in Uganda, Liberia, Congo-Kinshasa and Angola.

Aili Mari Tripp is Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tripp has published numerous books and articles on women¹s movements in Africa and internationally, global feminism, gender and politics in Africa and globally, and on women in post-conflict African countries. Tripp is completing a book entitled, Gender, Power and Peacemaking in Africa.She has published Museveni's Uganda: Paradoxes of Power (2010), co-authored a book with Isabel Casimiro, Joy Kwesiga and Alice Mungwa entitled African Women¹s Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes  (2009, and is author of Women and Politics in Uganda (2000) and Changing the Rules: The Politics of Liberalization and the Urban Informal Economy in Tanzania (1997). Tripp has edited and co-edited four other volumes and has a forthcoming edited volume (with Myra Marx Ferree and Christina Ewig) Gender, Violence, and Human Security:Critical Feminist Perspectives. She co-edits a book series with Stanlie James on Women in Africa and the Diaspora for the