The lipstick on the edge of the well: Mauritanian women and political power (1960-2014) ; Le rouge à lèvres sur la margelle du puits : les femmes mauritaniennes et le pouvoir politique (1960-2014)

Open Access

Abstract

International audience ; Centering the Mauritanian case, this chapter highlights two distinct realities that characterize the equation between woman and politics: the strength of their commitment and ability to have a voice, on the one hand, and the limited place and minor role they are granted within institutions of power, on the other hand. This "paradox" is explained by a second paradox: women's passage from the backstage to the stage in politics qualifies less as an argument of gender equality "in progress"—one of the trappings of democracy—than as a strategy of a patronage power seeking to maintain itself by manipulating at all costs the individualistic tendencies of female political and economic actors, who are also in search of opportunities for success. It is this "trap" that precludes women from scoring real gains that would allow them to fully assert themselves on an equal basis with men and have a genuine impact on politics.