Professional Affiliation

Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expert Bio

Aili Mari Tripp is Wangari Maathai Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tripp’s research has focused on women and politics and women’s movements in Africa, women and peacebuilding, transnational feminism, African politics, and on the informal economy in Africa. She has conducted extensive research over 30 years throughout Africa. Her most recent book is Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocrats Adopt Women’s Rights (2019). She is also author of several award winning books, including Women and Power in Postconflict Africa (2015), Museveni’s Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid Regime (2010), African Women’s Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes (2009) with Isabel Casimiro, Joy Kwesiga, and Alice Mungwa, and Women and Politics in Uganda (2000). She has been president of the African Studies Association and vice president of the American Political Science Association and is an associate editor of the American Political Science Review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comparative politics, African politics, women/gender and politics

Wilson Center Project

Why Do Authoritarian Regimes in Africa Adopt Women’s Rights?

Project Summary

The recent authoritarian turn globally raises questions about what happens to women’s rights in such contexts. Surprisingly, some authoritarian regimes in Africa have proven rather adept at adopting women’s rights provisions, making extensive constitutional and legislative reforms and promoting women as leaders. Women’s rights in some authoritarian states may even be a way of seeking internal and external legitimacy against an overall dismal human rights record. This project looks at why many, if not most, authoritarian regimes in Africa adopt more women’s rights reforms and often earlier than democratic regimes. It looks at the paradox that many women’s rights reforms are seemingly easier to implement than other reforms in human rights, civil liberties and political rights that might challenge the status quo more directly. The project evaluates not only policy adoption, but also the outcomes for women’s status and welfare.

Major Publications

• Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies Adopt Women's Rights, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

• Women and Power in Postconflict Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015

• African Women’s Movements: Transforming Political Landscapes. With Isabel Casimiro, Joy Kwesiga, and Alice Mungwa (co-authors). New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009

 

Previous Terms

Fellow 2007-2008, "Women and Peacemaking in Africa: When, Why and How Gender Matters"