The representation of women in municipal councils and executive structures – analysing the trends in the implementation of the Municipal Structures Act from the results of the 2006 and 2011 South African local government elections

This study specifically examines the implementation of the Structures Act, focusing on the representation of women councillors and women councillors in the municipal executive structures. There are several limitations to the study; first it is limited to the aggregate number of female councillors in municipal councils generally and secondly whether such representation correlates with the representation of women councillors in the executive and mayoral committees as well as mayoral positions. The study will not deal with the representation of women in administration. The study analyses the formal policies on gender of the major political parties only: namely the African National Congress, Democratic Alliance, Congress of the People and Inkatha Freedom Party, in relation to the implementation of the Structures Act.16 The scope of the study is limited to the data on the aggregate representation of women obtained from the Electoral Commission (hereafter referred to as IEC)17 after the 2006 and 2011 municipal elections. The data is based on the representation of women across all 278 South African municipalities. In addition the data in chapter 4, which examines the municipal executive structures, is limited to a sample of 191 municipalities. The smaller sample of 191 municipalities, instead of all 278 South African municipalities, is a result of the difficulties the author encountered in the collating of data regarding the representation of women in executive and mayoral committees.

Publisher: University of the Western Cape
Year of Publication: 2012