Women in government: the limits and challenges of a representative bureaucracy for Afghanistan (2001–2021)

Parwiz Mosamim and Jean-Patrick Villeneuve

Policy Studies, 2023, vol. 44, issue 6, 703-727

Abstract: This article analyses the limits and challenges of positive discrimination policies in the Afghan government (2001–2021). One of the primary objectives of the international community after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 was to bring Afghan women back into public service. The government adopted international and national policy frameworks in this direction, notably positive discrimination policies such as quotas. It set an objective of 30% female participation in civil service by 2020. To analyze these policies’ effectiveness and identify the challenges faced, we analyzed official documents setting the stage for a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with female civil servants and women’s rights activists. The study shows that the Afghan government failed to meet its objective. This was due to both institutional and non-institutional factors. These factors included the pervasiveness of sexual violence, discrimination, and corruption, and the impact of a traditional and patriarchal culture. These findings contribute to a better understanding of past policies. The article has important lessons for the study of mechanisms to promote women in government more widely.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01442872.2022.2161499 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cposxx:v:44:y:2023:i:6:p:703-727

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cpos20

DOI: 10.1080/01442872.2022.2161499

Access Statistics for this article

Policy Studies is currently edited by Toby James

More articles in Policy Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().