Paper short abstract:

The Parity Law adopted in Senegal can be regarded as the achievement of different political projects carried out by a number of local and international political actors. Its origins and outcomes show the emergence of specific political practices between women's associations and political parties.

Paper long abstract:

In 2010, the Senegalese Parliament adopted a new law requiring all political parties to introduce gender parity in electoral lists for all elected institutions. The Law has received a large consensus among the international community and has been celebrated as a proof of the democratic values of the country. Nevertheless, several local organizations committed to gender advocacy and people in everyday discourses have proposed a quite opposite interpretation, in which the Law is considered the last attempt of the former President Wade to restore the hegemony of its party, the PDS, increasing the control of political parties on "civil society" movements. The late defeat of the PDS shows that this project failed, at least partially, but it do not explain how and why, nor whether the implementation of the Law is leading to a "passive revolution", that is to say to a greater dependence of women's associations on political parties. Focusing on both the discourses on gender equality and the actual political practices related to political participation, this analysis will show that the two most widely accepted interpretations of the Parity Law are unable to account for the complex emergence of the Law as well as for its effects upon specific political practices. It seems more proper to analyze the law as the achievement of different projects in which development discourses, and particularly widespread ideas about gender equality, have been involved as resources and shaped by local and international actors, thus creating a complex set of outcomes.