Women As Ministers and the Issue of Gender Equality in the Republic of Cape Verde

Afrika Zamani, Nos 18 & 19, 2010–2011, pp. 151–160 © Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa & Association of African Historians, 2013 (ISSN 0850-3079) Women as Ministers and the Issue of Gender Equality in the Republic of Cape Verde Ângela Sofia Benoliel Coutinho* Abstract In the year 2008, the Republic of Cape Verde was considered the nation with the second most gender equal government in the world, as its governmental index was composed of eight female ministers, seven male ministers, a male prime minister, and four male secretaries of state. This article investigates gender equality in government by analysing the proportion of women that occupy leadership positions in the ministries, the judiciary, diplomatic service and those in the legislative assembly and local governments. The objective of this article is to seek to discover the point to which the governmental gender equality statistics mirrors the reality of contemporary Cape Verdean society as a whole. In light of this data, is it legitimate to conclude that this is an egalitarian society? What trajectory did the Cape Verdean society undergo that led to this situation? Résumé En 2008, la république du Cap-Vert a été considérée comme le deuxième pays au monde qui respecte le plus la parité au sein de son gouvernement parce qu’il était composé de huit femmes ministres, sept hommes ministres, un homme Premier ministre, et quatre homme ministres d’État. Cet article étudie l’égalité entre les sexes au sein du gouvernement en analysant la proportion de femmes qui occupent des postes de direction dans les ministères, au niveau du pouvoir judiciaire, des services diplomatiques et dans les collectivités locales et au niveau du pouvoir législatif. L’objectif de cet article est de chercher à découvrir dans quelle mesure la parité au sein du gouvernement reflète la réalité de la société capverdienne contemporaine dans son ensemble. À la lumière de ces données, est-il légitime de conclure que la société capverdienne est égalitaire? Quelle trajectoire la société capverdienne a-t-elle suivi pour aboutir à cet état de fait? * Post-doctoral researcher in CESNOVA-FCSH Nova university, Lisbon, Portugal. Email: [email protected] 9-Coutinho.pmd 151 02/10/2013, 17:29 152 Afrika Zamani, Nos 18 & 19, 2010–2011 Brief Historical Presentation Situated approximately 500 km from Senegal, the archipelago of Cape Verde was discovered in 1460 by navigators in the service of the king of Portugal. Cape Verde experienced two distinct stages of settlements. The first stage occurred on the islands of Sotavento (in the south), where an important outpost to the Atlantic slave trade was created in the city of Ribeira Grande. Having experienced periods of decadence and recovery of the Cape Verdean economy, its history was also marked, as of the eighteenth century, by droughts that provoked devastating famines. In the nineteenth century, the archipelago enjoyed a new cycle of economic development with the installation of British coal companies on the island of São Vicente. The island’s Porto Grande became one of the most important ports of the British Empire. Emigration intensified as well, especially towards the United States of America and South America, while some also emigrated to neighbouring African nations in addition to other Portuguese colonies. During the Second World War, the archipelago suffered one of the worst famines in its history, and São Vicente’s port economy entered into a definitive decline. Its population of approximately 200,000 inhabitants began to increasingly depend on remitances from emigrants. Studies about the history of women in Cape Verde are scarce, although it is evident that throughout the past five centuries, women were slaves and owners, later emigrants, and in Porto Grande on the island of São Vicente, they were seamstresses, cooks, entrepreneurs, and even coal loaders. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, they were primary school teachers, and the first known female authors emerged such as Gertrudes Lima who was known as the ‘Humble Peasant’, and the celebrated Antónia Pusish. In the first half of the twentieth century, the first Cape Verdean female doctor practiced in the city of Mindelo. With the emergence of the first public high school in the archipelago in 1917, girls were allowed to attend school. As a result, many women had access to this level of education by the end of the colonial period. They then held administrative positions, as some women had also obtained middle and superior level diplomas in the metropolis. Cape Verdean Women and the Fight for National Liberation The independence movement began in the 1950s in Bissau under the leadership of Amílcar Cabral, which led the archipelago to political independence in 1975. According to official sources, the PAIGC1 (the African party for the independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde) was founded in secrecy in Bissau on 19 September 1956. Indeed, the Estado Novo regime that prevailed in Portugal and the territories under its dominion until 1933 did not permit 9-Coutinho.pmd 152 02/10/2013, 17:29 Coutinho: Women as Ministers and the Issue of Gender Equality 153 the existence of other political parties aside from the National Union. The PIDE (International Police for State Defence2), Political Police was created with the intention of limiting or eliminating any actions committed by the opposition, namely the communists and republicans. It also strongly controlled, persecuted and repressed the militants associated with the African independence movements. Acting alone and in secrecy until 1960, the party which at the time was called PAI created a base in Conakry in the same year, and armed action was prepared. In 1963, military action began in the territory of present day Guinea-Bissau. The independence of Guinea-Bissau was unilaterally declared on 24 September 1973 after the assassination of Amílcar Cabral that occurred on 20 January 1973 in Conakry and the election of the National Assembly in 1972 in the territory under the dominion of the PAIGC. The independence was then recognized by the majority of the ONU countries. Several months later, on 25 April 1974, a coup d’État was executed by the military in Portugal. This enabled negotiations to take place with the hope of independence for Cape Verde, carried out by the provisional government in Portugal. PAIGC then supplanted the remaining political forces present that emerged, especially after the coup d’État of 25 April, and the independence of Cape Verde was proclaimed on 5 June 1975. After Independence, the archipelago lived under a one-party system regime that presented a unique trait because it controlled the political life of two independent states: Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. This situation was maintained until 1980. On 14 November of that year, there was a military coup d’État in Bissau that provoked the rupture of the PAIGC. As of 20 January 1981, a new political party came to power in the Republic of Cape Verde called the PAICV3 (the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde) that claimed to be a political heir of the PAIGC. In the year 1991 that gave way to the multiparty system, a recently created party, the MPD (Movement For Democracy), won the elections. The participation of Guinean women in political and military activity, and social restructure of the PAIGC in Guinean territory is well known and widely documented. However, the participation of Cape Verdean women at this level, and also that carried out in secret on the archipelago as well as in the African and European continents is widely unknown. This is a result of the fact that the history of the movement for the independence of Cape Verde had not yet been finished because of the necessity to collect more testimonials. Notwithstanding, in accruing more research and that of other researchers, the presence of Cape Verdean women that acted in the regions under the dominion of the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau as nurses, teachers, and 9-Coutinho.pmd 153 02/10/2013, 17:29 154 Afrika Zamani, Nos 18 & 19, 2010–2011 military personnel in the guerrilla warfare was unveiled. This aspect of the movement led by the PAIGC has been revealed throughout recent years, with the publication of testimonies from these women. Despite understanding the participation of Cape Verdean women in the clandestine activities of the PAIGC in Europe and the African continent, for example, through consulting the PIDE-DGS archives or the direct reference made by some men, testimonials made in the first person are still absent. An undated manuscript by Amílcar Cabral was made accessible to the public for consultation in which members of the Executive Conflict Council, the old Political Bureau, included not only leaders of the Cape Verdean clandestine movement, but also some Cape Verdean women such as: Maria da Luz Boal, Maria Amália Fonseca and Lucette Andrade as well as other Guineans, Francisca Pereira Ramos, and Carmen Pereira, the latter being the only woman to be a part of the governing body of the PAIGC at this level until the party’s dissolution in 1981. With the independence of Cape Verde, the nation’s women won the right to vote, but it was clear that the women who had been politically active before did not assume political positions with comparable importance. In 1981, the OMCV4 (Organization for the Women of Cape Verde) was created. This organization was connected to the PAICV whose principal objective was to frame the political activity of women. Brief Description of the Status of Cape Verdean Women at the Onset of the Twentieth Century The data presented in this chapter was obtained from the following publications: • ICIEG, CEDAW 2007. Relatório à Convenção sobre a Eliminação de Todas as Formas de Discriminação Contra as Mulheres e Documentos Conexos.

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