Headshot of Zainab Olaitan

Zainab Olaitan

Post-Doctoral Fellow

She/Her

PhD (Pretoria); MA (Pretoria); BSocSci(Cape Town), BSc (Lagos)

Political Studies

International Relations

Post-Doctoral Fellow

People Directory Affiliation Category

Brief Biography

Dr. Zainab Monisola Olaitan is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy. Her research focuses on Afrofeminist thought, gender and representation, and the women, peace and security agenda in Africa. She holds a PhD and MA from the University of Pretoria, a BSocSci (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Cape Town, and a BSc (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Lagos. She is a Research Associate at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) at the University of Johannesburg. Dr. Olaitan is the author of Women’s Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers (2024) and the lead editor of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women in Africa and the Caribbean: Linking the Two Regions (2025), both published by Palgrave Macmillan. She is a 2022 Margaret McNamara Education Grants (MMEG) recipient in recognition of her impactful research on women, a 2021-2023 University of Pretoria Doctoral Research Scholarship recipient, a 2019 Mastercard Foundation Scholar and 2018 Mandela Rhodes Scholar. 

Teaching

POLS 261 International Politics (Fall 2025)

For detailed information about political studies courses and instructors, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate pages. 

Selected Publications

 

The role of the African Union in fostering women’s representation in formal peacebuilding: a case study of Sierra Leone

Z Olaitan, C Isike

Adonis and Abbey

13 2019
Analysis of Women's Participation in Peace-building in West Africa: The Case of Sierra Leone

Z Olaitan

University of Pretoria

8 2020
Women’s Participation in Peace Processes in Nigeria; Challenges and Prospects.

ZM Olaitan

8 2018
Gender quotas and the substantive representation of women in African politics: Case studies of Botswana and South Africa

ZM Olaitan

PQDT-Global

7 2023
Feminist Rethinking of the Representation of African Women in Peacebuilding: A Theoretical Analysis

Z Olaitan

African Journal of Gender, Society & Development 12 (1), 185

6 2023
The representation of women in African-led peace support operations

ZM Olaitan

Journal of International Peacekeeping 26 (4), 394-411

5 2023
Gender quotas as a mechanism for engendering political transformation in Africa

ZM Olaitan, C Isike

The African Review 1 (aop), 1-21

4 2024
The relevance of African indigenous knowledge systems for development in Africa

ZM Olaitan

Policy Brief. Ottawa: Africa Indigenous Knowledge Research Network (AIKRN …

4 2024
Using digital technology to address gender-based violence in South Africa

ZM Olaitan

African women in the fourth industrial revolution, 226-240

4 2024
The 4IR and the humanities in South Africa: Perspectives on innovation, power and potentialities

B Ndzendze, A Singh, S Timm, C Meyers, MJ Malatji, MJ Malatji, ...

AOSIS

4 2024
A modern history of statelessness and the socio-political question

Z Olaitan

Cambridge Review of International Affairs 36 (1), 131-135

4 2023
Cyberspace Xenophobia in South Africa

EM Isike, Z Olaitan, C Isike

Conflict and concord: The ambivalence of African migrant/host relations in …

4 2022
Women’s Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers

ZM Olaitan

Springer Nature

3 2024
WOMEN OF ENDSARS: UNDERSTANDING WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN PROTESTS IN NIGERIA

ZM Olaitan

The International Journal on Law and Politics, 25-49

3 2024
An African Feminist Analysis of the Impact of Menstrual Taboos in Abrahamic Religions on Women and Girls in Africa

ZM Olaitan

Harmful Practices and Human Rights: An International Perspective, 309-339

1 2025
Women’s Political Representation in South Africa and Botswana

ZM Olaitan

Women's Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers, 123-141

1 2024
A gendered analysis of the wave of coups and terrorism in the Sahel

Z Olaitan

Journal of Central and Eastern European African Studies 4 (2), 88-112

1 2024
The Role of Gender Budgeting in Mainstreaming Women in Peacebuilding in Africa

ZM Olaitan

Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Africa: Access and Future Measures, 85-96

1 2024
Beyond Reaction:(Re)-Imagining African Agency in the Decolonization of Knowledge

ZM Olaitan, SO Oloruntoba

Decolonizing African Studies Pedagogies: Knowledge Production, Epistemic …

1 2023
Gender participation and agricultural development projects in Nigeria

ZM Olaitan

African Journal of Gender, Society & Development 12 (3), 31

1 2023
Enlightenment Ideas and Colonialism

ZM Olaitan

Africa’s Radicalisms and Conservatisms, 310

1 2023
Women’s Representation in Peace Support Operations: A Gendered Approach Towards Silencing the Guns in Africa

ZM Olaitan

Silencing the Guns, Volume 2: Reviewing the Agenda and Reassessing Prospects …

  2025
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women: A Descriptive Analysis

ZM Olaitan, F Adegalu

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women in Africa and the …

  2025
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women in Africa and the Caribbean

ZM OLAITAN, TA Ojo, S Maxwell

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women in Africa and the …

  2025
Navigating Political Fragility: The Challenges of Women Peacebuilders in Militarised Political Contexts in Africa

ZM Olaitan, MB Taiwo

African Solutions Journal 6 (1), 1 - 23

  2025
Re-imagining feminist thought from the prism of decoloniality: towards a decolonial relational feminism

ZM Olaitan

Politikon, 1-18

  2025
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women in Africa and the Caribbean

ZM Olaitan, TA Ojo, S Maxwell

  2025
Theorising the Impact of Women’s Political Representation

ZM Olaitan

Women's Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers, 75-95

  2024
Gender-Based Violence and Femicide as Substantive Women’s Representation

ZM Olaitan

Women's Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers, 143-161

  2024
Impact of Gender Quotas on Substantive Women’s Representation: Perspectives from Botswana and South Africa

ZM Olaitan

Women's Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers, 163-212

  2024
Gender Quotas and Descriptive Women’s Representation: Global and Continental Context

ZM Olaitan

Women's Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers, 39-74

  2024
Women’s Political Representation and Its Different Forms

ZM Olaitan

Women's Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers, 15-38

  2024
Substantive Representation of Women in African Politics: Issues and Debates

ZM Olaitan

Women's Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers, 97-122

  2024
Special focus: implementation of decisions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

F Viljoen, F Adegalu, ZM Olaitan

African Human Rights Law Journal 24 (2), 772-780

  2024
EndSARS Protest and Political Participation of Youths in Nigeria

ZM Olaitan

Development and Regional Stability in Africa: Unlocking Potential, 83-106

  2024
Gender Pay Gap and Pension Fund for Women in South Africa

TA Ojo, ZM Olaitan

Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Africa: Access and Future Measures, 63-72

  2024
Gender-Responsive Budgeting in Africa: Access and Future Measures

TA Ojo

Springer

  2024
African Women in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

TA Ojo, B Ndzendze

TAYLOR FRANCIS Limited

  2024
Embracing African Indigenous Knowledge System as an Approach to Re-centering Africa

ZM Olaitan, SO Oloruntoba

AIKRN Policy Brief

  2023
Sarah Wolff, 2021, Secular Power Europe and Islam; Identity and Foreign Policy

Z Olaitan

Cambridge Review of International Affairs 34 (5)

  2022
Journal of African Union Studies (JoAUS)

S Leone, Z Olaitan, C Isike

   
African Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the African Start-Up Ecosystem: Partnership for Impact.

ZM Olaitan, SO Oloruntoba

   
Women’s Representation in African Politics: Beyond Numbers

ZM Olaitan

Springer Nature