Abstract:
Political participation has more to do with various procedures than voting only. The United Nations
(2015) argues that politics has to do with freedom of speech, working together without gender
biasness, capacity to take part in the public sphere, ability to be registered as a political contender
and campaign, be voted and be able to hold office at all stages of government leadership.
Therefore, world-over men and women should be equal in order to participate in all areas of
decision making in party-politics. Unfortunately, this has not been easy for women as there have
been several barriers to their participation. This is because gender equality has been implemented
on paper than in practice. This is due to the fact that many people have been socialised to believe
that men are more powerful than women. This practice is deeply engraved into the social systems
extending to the economic and political spheres leading to women being regarded powerless and
unable to take up decision making or influential political positions in many nations. The gender
biasness becomes even more apparent in political parties, women are often appointed to
positions relating to administration and nurturing roles as compared to the strategic positions.
Women continue to be marginalized as men still continue to be regarded as the custodians of
leadership positions this study aims to examine the political disparities between men and women
as they determine who should be nominated and elected leading to many women being
disregarded. Qualitative approach was used for data collection using semi-structured
interviews.Data was then analysed using the thematic analysis to draw themes from the research
as well as participants’ responses. Non-probability sampling was used to choose participants of
the study using the purposive or judgmental sampling. Moreover, a gender audit was made with
regards to gender representation in the Vhembe District political arena. Information for the audit
was acquired through the help of key informants. Findings of the research observed that in the
Vhembe District, besides the existing barriers against women’s ascendency to positions of
political power, women have been finding a way up to influential political positions, even though
many are still concentrated at the very low positions as councillors. Hence, besides the
unprecedented number of women politicians, equal gender relations have not been achieved in
the district. Furthermore, the findings indicated that, political people in the district are less aware
of gender policies as well as government efforts aimed at doing away with gender inequalities in
the sector. In this regard, this research is a significant instrument in highlighting the disparities
that exist between men and women which disadvantage mainly women by holding them back
from accessing equal influential political positions.
