At the Intersections of Gender Inequality and State Fragility in Africa

Intersectionality has become a widely used theoretical lens through which scholars examine women’s political and economic participation. Intersectional frameworks analyze the ways in which formal state structures produce gender inequalities. It is precisely this conceptual and empirical strength that make a theory originally rooted in the experiences of Black women in the United States, applicable to other groups of women in a range of national contexts. Extensive debates surround the generalizability of intersectional theory. Using my work on gender inequality as a predictor of state fragility in the African region, this piece addresses these questions both conceptually and methodologically. My larger project is a cross-national study; however, I will use original country case study datasets from women’s local civil society organizations in Nigeria and Ghana to illustrate the relationships between institutionalized inequalities and the mobilization efforts of different groups of women. First, I begin by defining intersectionality. Next, I combine African feminists and African Muslim feminists’ theoretical contributions which extend and expand intersectionality. This piece contributes to conversations about the ways in which intersectionality can be applied to other groups of Black women outside of the United States. Third, I demonstrate how intersectionality is used to capture the range of priorities and strategies activists used to define and promote gender equality within formal state structures.