Women and leadership: A Feminist Analysis of Awa’s Leadership in Babacar Sall’s Le Stagiaire, Roman d’un President de la Republique

ABSTRACT: In most African societies, women are not given the chance to show their talent in leadership due to the customs. Most of the African traditions acknowledge that the place of African women is in the house, mainly in the kitchen. Sometimes, having women leaders would be better than having men leaders. Babacar Sall illustrates this in his novel le Stagiaire via the character of Awa. A committed woman who is motivated by the surrounding ills that her community lives. Those social and daily conundrums experienced by her entourages push her to think about some ways out for her surroundings. Despite the housing tasks, she succeeds in gathering her surroundings and awaring their consciousness around her policy “la republique manager” which aims in changing the political system in place that molests them and restricts their rights. In showing the leadership of the main character Awa, the Behavior and Situational theories are used. Therefore, the focus of the current inquiry is to show that women like Awa can be good and determined political leaders in changing positively the oppressed people’s life or in raising their awareness to revolt for change. Following the qualitative method, the data have confirmed that women like Awa can be good leader. For that to be so, women should be given chances as same as men.

KEYWORDS: African customs, Leadership, Political leader and Women