LAUSR

abstract There is an emerging trend in which global development actors insist that gender equality programmes and initiatives must involve the participation of men, to the extent, in some cases, of calling for men and boys to empower women and girls. In Uganda, studies exist on how women gender activists have drawn on some men to speak to gender equity issues on their behalf. In some of these studies, supportive men are constituted as ‘champions of gender equality’, as if to express gratitude to and celebrate as unexpected, the significant role these men are seen to play in promoting gender equality. In this article, I draw on interviews with women gender activists in and outside Parliament and some male parliamentarians to explore how and why women opt for men to speak to gender issues on their behalf. I also examine ways in which men who are ‘selected’ to represent female voice on gender issues perceive and represent themselves with regard to promoting gender equality and their relationship with women and other men. The article specifically engages with concerns on whether gender inequalities are challenged or institutionalised through the use of male promoters of gender equality in Uganda Parliament and assesses the implications such manoeuvres have for thinking about gender and feminism, in particular African feminism.