The Implications of Religion and Culture on Gender Equality: Observations from the 2014 Elections in Malawi

Abstract

The Fifth United Nations Sustainable Development Goal highlights the importance of promoting gender equality and empowering women as the avenue of reducing global poverty and human deprivation. This article discusses ways in which patriarchal discourses embedded in religion and culture in many African societies may be manipulated by politicians to exacerbate gender disparities in power relations. The analysis is drawn from the 2014 Malawi elections in which a major opposition party used a campaign slogan peppered with sexist religious and cultural connotations to ridicule and vote out of office southern Africa’s first ever female President – Joyce Banda of Malawi and her People Party (PP). In May 2014, Malawi held national elections and the main contestants were the then incumbent President Joyce Banda representing the PP, Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Atupele Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF). Mutharika and the DPP won the elections to wrestle away the presidency from Joyce Banda and her People’s Party. The eventual winning party (the DPP) created a campaign slogan – Sesa Joyce Sesa1 – to attack the femininity of then President Joyce Banda. Eventually, picked up by the social media, the slogan appeared to resonate with the religious and cultural identity of the electorate. It is against this backdrop that this article analyses the DPP campaign mantra and illuminates the implications of deeply entrenched religious societies on women empowerment, specifically in political leadership roles. The article suggests that for Africa to make strides with regard to the fifth Sustainable Development Goal, stakeholders ought to engage and rethink over retrogressive and manipulative beliefs that constrain women’s roles in the political arena.