Gretchen Bauer

Biography

Gretchen Bauer, PhD (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994) joined the Department in 1994. She teaches classes in African politics, African politics and literature, and gender and politics. She conducts research on women's political leadership in Africa, with a current focus on women in parliament and cabinet in Ghana and West Africa. Professor Bauer has been a visiting researcher at the Institute for Public Policy Research in Windhoek, Namibia (2002) and at the University of Botswana in Gaborone (2009). During 2016 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ghana in Accra. During 2019 she was a senior fellow focused on parliaments and democracy in Africa at the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) at the University of Ghana, and in 2023 she returned to MIASA as co-convenor and senior fellow focused on increasing women’s political presence in West Africa. At the University of Delaware, she directed the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Mandela Washington Fellowship from 2014 to 2018.

From 2022 to 2025, Professor Bauer served as vice-president, president, and past president of the African Studies Association (USA).

Publications

‘We See What Men Don’t See’: Reflections of Women Cabinet Ministers from The Gambia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Africa Today special issue, Rethinking Women’s Political Power in West Africa, edited by Erdmute Alber, Gretchen Bauer, and Akosua Darkwah, forthcoming, 2025.

‘Who Will Open the Door?’ Women in Parliament and Cabinet in Ghana. In Scott Strauss and Aili Mari Tripp, eds. The State, Ethnicity, and Gender in Africa: Intellectual Legacies of M. Crawford Young. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2024: 274-292. Co-authored with Akosua Darkwah.

The Constitution of Ghana’s Fourth Republic and the Implications for Women’s Representation in Politics. In Joseph R.A. Ayee, Lloyd G.A. Amoah, and Seidu M. Alidu, eds. Political Institutions, Party Politics and Communication in Ghana: Three Decades of Ghana’s Fourth Republic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024: 61-79. Co-authored with Rosina Foli.

Gender and Politics in Ayawaso West Wuogon: Women Standing for Parliament. In Kelly Krawczyk and Bridgett King, eds. Women’s Contributions to Development in West Africa: Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023: 197-223.

Funding Demands and Gender in Political Recruitment: What Parties Do in Cabo Verde and Ghana. International Political Science Review. 2023. 44(1): 77-90. Co-authored with Vibeke Wang and Ragnhild Muriaas.