The last week was marked by debate about the non appearance of a female presidential candidate on the January 2026 presidential ballot, the first time since the return of political pluralism 20 years ago.
Notwithstanding that the last four elections featured a female aspirant, the development opened the longstanding debate of Uganda’s long journey to women’s empowerment. In Uganda and much of Africa, traditional beliefs undermined girls’ education, inheritance, and the right to work, and stripped women of simple pleasures such as consuming certain foods.
Consequently, the Women’s Movement, which was born in the 1960s/70s and gained momentum alongside other social movements, embarked on crusading for liberal reforms. In Uganda, post-colonial governments followed emerging trends. The enrolment of girls in schools was encouraged by the governments, although communities took a while to widely embrace the idea, as many preferred to educate the boys. In governance, women representation in the first parliament; the Legislative Council (LEGCO) started in 1954, although they were all white.
African women representation came in 1956 in Pumla Kisosonkole. She even went on to represent Ugandan women at the international scene and became president of the International Council of Women between 1959 and 1962, and the first Ugandan woman representative to the UN General Assembly from 1963 to 1964. Kisosonkole was followed in LEGCO by Florence Alice Lubega as the first woman MP in Uganda’s first post-independent parliament in May 1962. The post-independent Cabinet was largely men. There were no women in President Amin’s cabinet.
Renaissance
As political instability swept the country, 1979 marked a new dawn in global women empowerment with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), billed as the international bill of rights for women. Uganda ratified the treaty that requires signatory states to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in 1985.
The National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M) shot to power in 1986. There were no women in the rebel group’s top hierarchy, although several women, driven to the precipice by the Uganda National Liberation Army, such as Olivia Zizinga, Joyce Sserwaniko, Gertrude Njuba, Sarah Navuga and China Keitesi played key roles as combatants and espionage.
The NRM embarked on wide ranging reforms, including forming a broad-based government encompassing Opposition politicians in key ministerial positions, and women, including Njuba and Victoria Ssekitoleko. In 1988, Joyce Mpanga, who died in November 2023, was appointed the first minister for Women Affairs.
Dr Sylvia Tamale, writing in When Hens Begin to Crow, noted that President Museveni announced his belief that Uganda’s successful development depended on increased gender equity and backed his opinions by setting several women-centred policies in motion.
In 1989, the NRM passed a resolution to allocate at least one-third of seats for women at all levels, from local councils to the parliament. In 1994, Ms Specioza Wandira Kazibwe became vice president, the first on the continent and became the beacon of progressive policies. The Justice Benjamin Odoki Constitutional Commission that aggregated public views in the making of the 1995 Constitution, recommended special provisions for the protection and promotion of the rights of women, the family, children, and the handicapped or disabled.
‘Women have historically been subordinate to men in Ugandan society. Since 1986, gender has become an important base for division and organisation as women, encouraged by the government, have begun to address their relative lack of strength. Among other issues, women have expressed immense concern about their right to own and inherit property and to have custody of their children. They are also concerned about violence against women and children and their lack of access to education, credit, land, and employment,’ the report reads in part.
First steps
Ultimately, Article 32 of the 1995 Constitution lists women among the marginalised groups based on gender that require affirmative action to correct historical and traditional injustices that have positioned them in. Thirty years later, there is consensus that Uganda has made commendable progress in the cause of women’s empowerment and gender equality as women currently occupy key positions of Vice President, Speaker of Parliament, and Prime Minister, and are represented at all levels of leadership.
The position of District Woman Member of Parliament was created to increase the number of women in Parliament. In the Current parliament, out of the total 556 MPs, 189 are women (146 District Women representatives, 16 directly elected, 3 army representatives, 10 Special Interest Groups, and 14 ex officio)
The Local Governments Act reserves one-third of seats on local government councils for women. A specific woman councillor must be directly elected to represent each ward. A 2017 UBOS report found that women constitute about 46 percent of total elected representatives in local governments.
The introduction of free education at the primary and secondary levels is also hailed for bridging the gender parity gap in education. Girls joining the university are guaranteed an extra 1.5 points to increase the number of women in higher education. Even mainstream programmes such as the Parish Development Model make special provisions for women, for whom 30 percent of the 100 million per parish is reserved.
Dr Maggie Kigozi, a feminist and entrepreneur, reminisces about the time women were considered second-class citizens. She explains: ‘We were left out of education in the past. Not anymore with UPE, USE. When UPE came, those people who were saying, ‘I don’t have enough money to educate both the boys and the girls. So let me educate the boys, because they need to work, they need to bring the money. The girls will just get married.’ So that has changed. I sit on the Makerere Endowment Fund, and 52 percent of our graduates are women.’
‘But we’re still very much less in the top positions than the men. The politics, we have the vice president, and many PSs are now women. And we hopefully will get there where we are, 50-50. If not, more women, because we do deliver,’ she adds.
Despite the tremendous progress in, it has been marred by a century-long chain of a biased system, compounded by a deteriorating democratic system.
Ms Carol Kayanja, a senior programmes officer at the NGO, Uganda Community Based Association for Women and Children, concurred that while a lot of gains have been made, women remain on the back burners as a result of, especially traditional beliefs and values.
‘The failure to come up with a minimum wage has disadvantaged women, especially since everyone is struggling to get a job. Those whose bargaining power is less, and those whose chances of even being employed are limited, are the most affected by that,’ she adds.
Ms Rita Aciro, the executive director at Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET), says the progress must be contextualised. ‘If we are going to go by the population, we should be seeing a 50 and above representation of women in leadership because we’re the majority. But we’re still oscillating between 30 and 35 at most in all decision-making spaces,’ she says.
There are concerns that the prevailing politics of patronage and tokenism and social and cultural impediments have adulterated the ideals of women’s emancipation.
According to Ms Aciro, poverty remains a big problem for women, despite the many programmes introduced by the government, pointing to less than desired economic empowerment.
According to the 2020 Household Survey, poverty decreased gradually from 23 percent in 2016/17 to 21.3 percent in 2023/24 among females. For males, the reduction was more pronounced, with poverty dropping from 24 percent in 2019/20 to 17.4 percent in 2023/24.
Women in Numbers
189 women in Parliament (out of 556 MPs).
46 percent of elected local government representatives are women.
50 percent of Permanent Secretaries are women.
52 percent of Makerere University graduates are women.
21.3 percent of women still live in poverty, compared to 17.4 percent of men.