Paper long abstract:

In July 2004 elections for municipal councils took place in Niger. The number of councils was expanded, further enhancing the recent process of decentralisation. For the first time a quota system was legislated. This resulted in an average of two to four women being elected in each municipal council. Although the number might not seem significant, the fact that women at local level could publicly stand for a position signalled their access to local politics.

In the municipal councils researched, the representation of women councillors is 20%, twice the required quota. This suggests that women are not only chosen as 'tokens' because of the quota system - which is intriguing in a society where women as 'public' persons are perceived differently from men and where religious, cultural and economic conditions often reinforce unequal relations between men and women.

This paper analyses the experiences of the women elected in municipal councils by looking at the formal criteria and informal dynamics that influenced their election. The research demonstrates how the women utilised predominantly informal dynamics in their campaigns and exploited their access to the private domain of voters and their various networks as a major source for support.

The representation of women councillors in the five municipal councils confirms that within the decentralisation process women have better access to local politics. But the research also illustrates ambivalent attitudes towards women elected within their own political party and own communities.