Strengthening Gender Equality in Decision Making in Public Administration in Zambia

Achieving significant women representation in decision making positions in public administration has been identified as key step towards achieving gender equality. Gender equality is regarded as a top priority to any institution, not because equality between men and women is an important developmental goal, but because both men and women’s participation in activities that affect them and the nation leads to growth as well as development. Women represent more than half of the world’s population, have talent, are human capital and their productivity is equal to that of men, such that their absence in decision making affects the operations of various institutions. With a female Vice-President appointed to the second highest office in Zambia, Zambia is still one of the poorest ranked countries on the Gender Equality Index. Women in Zambia face numerous obstacles in their everyday lives especially participating in decision making. The country’s strong patriarchal culture and the domination of formal and informal institutions by men partly explains this. Balanced representation of both men and women in decision making is not only important but it is equally essential to have women dispersed throughout different sectors of administrative governance and have them equitably represented at all levels of decision making. This study examined the gender gaps in public administration and focused on how gender equality can be strengthened thereby contributing to the development of tracking mechanisms for gender equality in this sector. The study was based primarily on desk research (analysis of studies, reports and academic publications, policy documents, declarations and media articles) and most importantly built on in-depth interviews with key experts, government representatives and civil society organizations. Therefore, bearing in mind the key barriers that women face in society, the study analyzed whether the recommendations given as well as existence of various legal frameworks leads to increased gender equality in the country or not.