The Non-Governmental Organizations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) was established by a few Zambian women NGOs in 1985, after the United Nations’ World Conference on Women held in Nairobi Kenya. Born out of a realisation that women’s empowerment is a long, often arduous process, NGOCC facilitates networking between women’s organisations, initiatives and cooperatives at the local, national, regional and international levels.
Now the NGOCC has spoken out loudly and called on Zambians especially women to support Edith Nawakwi in the presidential by-elections. NGOCC Chairperson Sara Longwe recently released a press statement urging “ _all well-meaning Zambians, especially women to support [Nakakwi]…because at this critical moment that we decide our fate for the next 50 years, it is time Zambians give a woman the chance to lead this great nation_ ”.
The NGOCC says we need Nawakwi because “ _women are naturally compassionate, loving, caring and understand the complex needs of the community and indeed the country_ ” As a mother “ _Ms Nawakwi will provide leadership that will accelerate the social economic development of our country_ ”. In short her qualification is that she is a woman and she has children. It is not clear what childless women make of that. Nawakwi has consistently made the same plea. In 2011 she said that Zambia and the rest of Africa needs female presidents.“Look at what is happening in Libya, Somalia and all the carnage… who is making those decisions? The motherly instinct of a woman would not allow such, as mothers our stomachs move when we see such carnage. I believe that with women in charge, we would not be seeing most of the conflicts we are seeing in Africa today”.
h3. Are Nawakwi and Longwe right?
Does female political leadership lead to superior economic outcomes? Is there any reason why we think female leadership may have a positive macroeconomic impact on Zambia? Are there any fundamental difference in public policies that men and women may pursue and how would that affect national outcomes?
Unfortunately, the literature has not addressed this question explicitly! However, American studies regarding the influence on government of giving women the right to vote, shows that it has affected fiscal decision making at the state level. In particular, suffrage coincided with immediate increases in state government expenditures and revenues and more “liberal” voting patterns for federal representatives, and that these effects expanded over time as more women began to vote. This would suggest that women may be more relatively risk averse and would be more predisposed to collective / state based solutions rather than the selfish drive of private market provision. The other point is that women’s lower average income might also predispose them toward government programs with a progressive redistributive element.
Other international evidence suggest that women who have to raise children on their own are more likely to classify themselves as liberal and support progressive redistributive taxation. Women also tend to have a somewhat stronger preference for public insurance and redistributive spending, if not for a larger role for government altogether. But of course larger government may not bode well for economic growth – the evidence remains ambiguous here. So if a female president was more geared to empowerment she would need to do it in a way that did not have detrimental effect on growth. This evidence of course needs to be treated with a pinch of salt due to contextual issues, but it does point to one key lesson : broadly speaking, it is the “female vote” that affected the outcome not necessarily “female leaders”. That would suggest that the best strategy may not necessarily be to push for a female president. Rather women should rally behind someone who can credibly commit to lift the plight of women.
The question therefore women should be asking is – “_Is there a female vote in Zambia?_” rather than “_Do we need a female president_?”. Developing a “female voting” block would deliver more sustained pro-female changes in Zambia than a female president with a parliament full of men. We think this may also apply to other groups e.g. disabled, aged and the youth.