04
Systemic Barriers Preventing Women's Policy Influence
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Several barriers prevent women from scaling their impact beyond their communities.
These barriers do not operate independently, they interact to systematically limit women’s visibility, legitimacy and influence across governance scales.
Chad & Guinea
Women rarely own land; access is mediated by male relatives and limit is regulated by the law (impossibility to inherit for example).
Morocco
Patriarchal norms limit women’s ability to claim forest-use rights.
Senegal
Women lack literacy in French/Wolof, excluding them from official committee documents. Limited self confidence and leadership skills.
Guinea, Chad, Morocco
Limited financial literacy and restricted access to strategic information.
Kenya
Women lack understanding of their rights, and they receive limited information on budget consultations and other policy influencing opportunities.
Tanzania
Even if women do have a seat at the table, hierarchies in knowledge systems and limited experience/confidence in leadership roles are two major obstacles. Promoting positive masculinities in such local committees can help change perceptions of women’s capabilities.
Socio-Cultural Norms
Senegal & Guinea
Women discouraged from speaking in public or in front of men.
Morocco & Guinea
Women expected to remain in the domestic sphere.
Tanzania
Fisheries and marine management are widely perceived as “men’s work,” undermining women’s legitimacy in leadership roles.
Care Burdens and Mobility
Chad
Heavy unpaid care work reduces availability for leadership training – projects are now piloting collective childcare.
Guinea & Senegal
Travel to meetings is limited for safety/cultural reasons. Time is allocated to family care, projects like ‘Women for Forests’ are finding solutions to make these productive tasks more easy to do so that women have time and energy to put in other activities such as advocacy.
Institutional Weaknesses
Forest management boards, land committees, local marine protected area committees, and national park authorities rarely reserve seats for women.
National policy bodies don’t treat community knowledge as “legitimate evidence”.
Beach Management Units lack consistent funding, mentorship, and gender-responsive budgeting to sustain women’s leadership beyond election cycles.
