Colonial Legacies and Gender Equality: A Study of Women’s Rights in Angola & Namibia

Global Tides Volume 19 Article 8 April 2025 Colonial Legacies and Gender Equality: A Study of Women’s Rights in Angola & Namibia Anna E. Stephens Pepperdine University, Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/globaltides Part of the African Studies Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, and the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Stephens, Anna E. (2025) "Colonial Legacies and Gender Equality: A Study of Women’s Rights in Angola & Namibia," Global Tides: Vol. 19, Article 8. Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/globaltides/vol19/iss1/8 This International Studies and Languages is brought to you for free and open access by the Seaver College at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Global Tides by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact . Colonial Legacies and Gender Equality: A Study of Women’s Rights in Angola & Namibia Cover Page Footnote A tremendous thank you to Dr. Rizkallah for her encouragement and guidance throughout my research process. This international studies and languages is available in Global Tides: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/ globaltides/vol19/iss1/8 Stephens: Colonial Legacies and Gender Equality: A Study of Women’s Rights in Angola & Namibia Introduction Angola and Namibia are two neighboring countries nestled into the southwestern coast of the African continent. The former boasts a population of 33 million1 while the latter is home to 2.5 million people.2 Both nations have a wealth of natural resources and a history of brutal colonialism. The overlap of these factors has historically catalyzed injustice against Indigenous Angolans and Nambians, causing social and economic issues that persist even after both countries gained independence. Such issues take a toll on female livelihoods and women’s rights. However, one of these countries has risen above the rest of the African continent and most of the world when it comes to promoting gender equality. This paper uses the method of difference to elucidate which factors led Namibia and Angola to starkly different outcomes concerning gender equality, with Namibia becoming particularly successful at advancing women’s rights. Methodology The method of difference is a comparative politics theory that demonstrates causal relationships by examining a set of cases with similar characteristics but different outcomes.3 While social scientists cannot perfectly manipulate all variables in a comparative politics study, choosing two case countries with as many similarities as possible isolates which variable might cause an outcome of interest. The method of difference can be applied to Angola and Namibia thanks to their similar climates, geography, colonial histories, ethnic diversity, and abundant natural resources.4 The source selection process was systematic and thorough. Criteria for selection included peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and authoritative reports published predominantly in the past two decades to ensure data’s accuracy and relevance. Included studies were chosen for how they directly address the role of colonial legacies in shaping women’s rights. Such sources offered historical, political, and social analyses to provide insight into Angolan and Namibian women’s rights in the context of decolonization. Exclusion criteria included sources that were not peer-reviewed or lacked relevance to the central theme of colonialism and gender equality, as well as those that lacked sufficient analytical depth. Sources were compiled and accessed using reputable research databases, namely JSTOR, Google Scholar, and EBSCOHost. Keywords included "Portuguese colonization of Angola," "German colonization of Namibia," "Angola and Namibia independence movements," "decolonization," and "natural resource extraction." Historical milestones in Angolan and Namibian history, such as initial colonization and eventual independence, were used as time markers to focus on relevant literature covering those periods. 1 World Bank. “Angola.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/country/angola#:~:text=Angola%20At%2DA%2DGlance&text=It%20has%20a%20populati on%20of%20more%20than%2033.08%20million%20(2022). 2 World Bank. “Namibia.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/country/namibia#:~:text=Namibia%20is%20a%20small%20country,%2C%20Botswana%2 C%20Zambia%20and%20Angola. 3 Lijphart, Arend. “Comparative politics and the comparative method.” American Political Science Review, vol. 65, no. 3, Sept. 1971, pp. 682–693, https://doi.org/10.2307/1955513. 4 Hamutenya, Hidipo. "Namibia and Angola: Analysis of a symbiotic relationship." Namibian foreign relations (2014): 81-109. Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2024 1 Global Tides, Vol. 19 [2024], Art. 8 Measuring Women’s Rights This paper uses the criteria found in the United Nations Sustainable Development Report to measure women’s rights. The fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in this report, called Gender Equality, asks four essential questions when assessing a country’s progress on gender equality. These four measurements are important because they represent how much control women have over their livelihoods. For example, access to family planning ensures that women can choose the quantity and timing of their pregnancies, allowing for better health and education outcomes.5 Healthier, more educated women are then better equipped to enter the workforce, participate in the political sphere, and ultimately lift themselves out of poverty.6 The four essential questions are as follows: 1) Is demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods? 2) What is the ratio of female to male mean years of education received? 3) What is the ratio of female to male labor force participation rate? 4) What percentage of seats are held by women in national parliament? The UN has an interactive, color-coded data map that shows how much progress countries have made on various SDGs since the beginning of the 21st century. Figure 1 shows that Angola is bright red, meaning that major challenges remain regarding women’s rights. Namibia is bright green, denoting that it has accomplished the SDG of gender equality. Impressively, it is one of only seven countries7 in the world to have reached this goal. Figure 1: UN Sustainable Development Report on Gender Equity in Angola & Namibia, 2023. 5 Cleland, John, et al. “Family planning: The unfinished agenda.” The Lancet, vol. 368, no. 9549, Nov. 2006, pp. 1810–1827, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(06)69480-4. 6 European Commission. “SDG 5 - Gender Equality.” Statistics Explained, 24 Aug. 2023, ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=SDG_5_-_Gender_equality#:~:text=SDG%205%20aims% 20to%20achieve,all%20levels%20of%20decision%2Dmakin. 7 United Nations. Sustainable Development Report 2023, July 2023, dashboards.sdgindex.org/map/goals/SDG5. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu (...truncated)