Gender and Power Negotiation in Politics: A Discursive Analytic Approach to the Organic Laws of Women’s Political Representation in Algeria

Abstract

Algerian women have always faced the unfortunate reality of their political under-representation in the national political institutions since the independence of their country in 1962 due to men’s political dominance, which prevented them from developing their political competence, and from participating in the decision-making process. Therefore, in order to promote their political representation, the Algerian government adopted women’s quota system in 2012, and then the gender parity principle in 2021. This work scrutinises the effects of gender roles and power inequalities on Algerian women’s political representation and on the enactment and implementation of the organic laws using the gender dominance theory and political discourse analysis, mainly van Dijk’s (1997) critical-political discourse analysis which deals with political power, power abuse and domination in political discourse. This study aims to uncover the advantages and disadvantages of these laws and their impact on women’s political empowerment through analysing the data collected from the questionnaire using the mixed methods approach and the descriptive-interpretive method. The research findings indicate that the quota system, despite its shortcomings, helps to improve women’s political representation in elected assemblies, whereas the gender parity principle guarantees only their presence on electoral lists.