Representation of women’s concerns
Women MPs cultivate perceptions through the representation of women’s concerns. However, women MPs in reserved seats are more devoted to women’s issues than women in open seats. This is why women MPs, although not legally representatives of women, are considered MPs for women in practice. Women focus on women’s issues because women form the most significant proportion of the population and, consequently, the main section of the grassroots voters’ who, compared to middle-class women, turn up more to vote. The vote advantage is why MPs devote their energy and time to women’s concerns to influence their perception of performance.
Voters perceive their individual economic needs as the primary obligation of MPs.Women MPs try to understand the constituents’ needs; one respondent, a subsequent electoral winner, attributes her success to reading the minds and understanding the interests of her constituency, which is where her focus is (interview, Oyam South 2021). Due to the impact of the war, the Acholi sub-region faces land conflict challenges and has some of the highest levels of teenage pregnancy, an increased number of girls dropping out of school, gender-based violence, human rights abuses, and other issues. Women MPs whose political ideologies touch on these issues are perceived positively. In all the ten FGDs, two in each of the districts of Agago, Gulu, Kitgum, Pader and Oyam 2021, women MPs received recognition for bringing out important issues such as health, poverty, girl child education, gender-based violence, environmental concerns, and support for community rehabilitation, among others, in Parliament.
Reserved seats generate mandates for women to represent women, based on the justification of representation theory. Representation theory assumes that women are a constituent collective aiming to push as many women as possible to decision-making positions to represent women’s concerns (Human Rights and Peace Centre and Kituo Cha Katiba 2016). Other studies also show that women’s presence in parliament guarantees representing women’s interests collectively, including shared values and experiences (Clayton, Josefsson, & Wang 2017:296). Therefore, women’s numbers and presence in decision-making positions carry high constituent expectations of women as representatives.
However, women’s constituency is sometimes challenged because women have different identities and experiences that are not shared (Celis et al.2008:5). Aligned with these findings is the assertion that descriptive representation, the mirror representation of women’s interests, is not straightforward. There is evidence that some women do not focus on women’s interests or gender equality (Wängnerud 2009:65). The reason is that women have differing interests, women are not homogenous, meaning they do not have unified interests (Ahikire, Musiimenta and Mwiine 2015:27).
Also, everyone votes for women MPs, which means they are not MPs of only women. This assertion was deep-rooted in individual interviews in which women MPs on reserved seats, on the one hand, affirmed that they were representatives of the whole district and not only women. On the other hand, they claim to be representatives of women, creating a paradox in representation. As a result, reserved seats have resulted in ambiguities about women’s representation and lack of clarity about whom the women on the reserved seats should represent (Goetz 2002:558; Tamale 1999:78). The lack of precision concerning whom women represent affects voters’ perceptions; in the interviews, women in reserved seats were said to be MPs for the women. Therefore, their response to women’s concerns is impactful based on the label attached to women on reserved seats.
In contrast, women in open seats tend to align themselves with masculinity-related developments, such as fundraising for infrastructural development. This they do because they consider themselves directly involved with their constituencies’ development. Comparatively, women’s concerns have a faster influence on voter perceptions than long-term public goods because women form the majority of voters. Interviews with women MPs revealed women’s active involvement in the gender equality legislation passed on the floor of Parliament. Literature establishes that irrespective of the seat, most women MPs legislate women’s issues by pursuing pro-women legislation (Clayton, Josefsson, & Wang 2016:284; Ahikire & Mwiine 2015:30). Women have achieved positive legislative outcomes, especially for gender-sensitive legislation through their caucus, under the Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) (Johnson and Josefsson 2021:845). Women MPs unified their voices as members of UWOPA in legislation for gender-sensitive legislation, thus making it difficult to determine how specific categories of women parliamentarians perform in legislation.