Reimagining political representation in Africa: an Ubuntu-Integrated Framework for bridging gender inequality

In almost all electoral democracies around the globe, women are often underrepresented in legislative and executive positions. This paper critiqued the socio-political nest that conditioned and perpetuates this gender inequality and offered a new paradigm for redistributive justice, using Africa as acase study–where women hold merely 27.1% of elective and appointive positions. The Ubuntu philosophy underpinned the study and was used to negate gender imbalances and guarantee political inclusivity. Women’s political underrepresentation, gender inequality, patriarchal cultural norms, and the interplay between political and social structures constituted the principal indicators. Through the Ubuntu Integrated Framework (UIF), the paper offered a practical model for women’s political emancipation: UIF outlined the relationship between these principal indicators and proposed a recontextualised political and institutional positioning through the application of Ubuntu principles in political representation. Overall, the paper holds prospects for upscaling women’s representation in governance through reframing and advocacy, policy development, and systemic change in Africa.