The Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs will host a seminar titled: Beyond Victimhood - Reframing Women’s Agency in Electoral Violence Narratives
In Southern Africa, women politicians increasingly face both online and offline violence, particularly during closely contested elections, reflecting broader patriarchal resistance to female leadership. While global discourse on gender-based violence is expanding, African experiences remain underexplored, shaped by historical structural exclusion and limited regulatory protections. Current policy responses are often fragmented, failing to fully address women's specific challenges and strengths in public life.
Traditionally, analyses of electoral violence have portrayed women primarily as victims of structural, physical, and digital harm. While this perspective is important, it risks reinforcing narrow depictions of African women as passive or powerless. This seminar challenges that narrative by foregrounding the resilience, resistance, and innovative strategies women employ to navigate violent electoral environments. It reframes African women not merely as survivors but as active political agents capable of contesting, theorising, and transforming the conditions of their political participation.
The discussion further interrogates the limitations of existing policy frameworks and advocates for a reimagined understanding of women's political agency in contexts of violence. By moving beyond victimhood, the seminar highlights women's critical role in shaping democratic processes and advancing inclusive governance in Southern Africa.
The seminar:
Dr. Ashleigh R.T. Shangare is a postdoctoral fellow at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, where her research focused on evaluating women's political empowerment in Africa. Her research interest is centred on women in African politics, with a key focus on gender and political representation in Africa. Her research interests address gender as relevant for development and she has worked on research projects varying from women and political participation, women and traditional leadership, women in mediation, gender and climate change and gender policy analysis.