Gender, Patronage and the Post-2020 Political Settlement in Côte d’Ivoire

Political transitions in Africa often reconfigure power structures, yet the integration of gender perspectives into analyses of these settlements remains limited. Following a significant political transition, Côte d’Ivoire presents a critical case for examining how gendered power relations are negotiated within new patronage networks. This policy analysis examines how the post-transition political settlement has reshaped opportunities and constraints for women's political leadership. It aims to deconstruct the interplay between formal gender equity policies and informal patronage systems, assessing their combined impact on women's access to power. The analysis employs a qualitative, process-tracing approach, drawing on policy documents, elite interviews, and observational data from political party conferences and legislative sessions to map gendered patronage networks and institutional reforms. The analysis reveals that while a 30% gender quota for candidate lists was legislated, its implementation has been co-opted by dominant-party patronage. Women's political appointments are frequently used to reward loyalty to male party barons, reinforcing a thematic tension between symbolic inclusion and substantive marginalisation. The post-transition settlement has instrumentalised gender inclusion within a resilient patronage framework, ultimately curtailing the transformative potential of gender equity policies and perpetuating women's dependent political status. Recommendations include advocating for the de-linking of quota implementation from party patronage through independent oversight bodies, and supporting coalition-building among women politicians across party lines to challenge gatekeeping practices. political settlements, gender quotas, patronage politics, women's leadership, West Africa, post-conflict governance This article provides a novel analysis of the specific policy mechanism—the partisan management of legislated gender quotas—through which patronage systems dilute gender equity reforms in African political transitions.