Violence against women leaders begins with gender stereotypes - report

The attack and eventual violence towards women politicians in the country stem from negative gender stereotypes.

This is one of the revelations of a study that was undertaken by Siasa Place that was released on Thursday.

The report, Gender-based violence as a hindrance to special groups within political parties, explains the root cause of political gender-based violence and possible solutions.

Jackline Ng’ang’a, one of the researchers said the stereotypes society perpetuates about women running for various seats may eventually lead to their harassment or assault.

“First they want to establish your marital status, whether you have children or even if you are divorced and then the attacks will be based on those things,” she said.

She said women politicians are often criticised for being unmarried, and not having children and if they are married, they are told they cannot vie for seats in certain regions.

“They are told sometimes that they are not married to people from their communities so they should go and vie where they were married and vice versa (where they were born),” she said.

Ng’ang’a said numerous attacks on women leaders come from within their own political parties, perpetrated by their fellow competitors.

She said a lot of the conversation on political gender-based violence is of attacks on women out in the open and online but not in political parties.

“We need to interventions on how all this profiling can end. We need to have accountable inclusive political parties, not just policies without implementation,” she said.