Exploring roles of females in contemporary socio-politico-economic governance: An association rule approach

Abstract

Undeniably, the engagement of females in socio-politico-economic activities of most countries in the world, especially in developing economies, is far less than males. Although females form the majority in most developing countries, they are rarely engaged in the discourse of cogent developmental issues. The rising interest of females in political and socio-economic discourse, especially in the western world, has sparked female interest in the governance structure of developing countries. Subsequently, with an increased penetration of the Internet and social media, the contribution of females to governance has even assumed a new level. Using primary data collected from six Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, the paper identifies relationships of females’ interest in socio-politico-economic governance on the countries surveyed. This paper equally digested a repertoire of data from relevant secondary sources on female involvement in the political landscape of SSA countries. To unravel some key relationships amongst the variables of interest in the study, we have used association rules (data mining technique). One of our key findings appears to indicate that the interest of females in political discourse is highly associated with the level of trust respondents have in the governance and leadership of the countries.