Gretchen Bauer is professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware where she teaches African politics, African politics and literature, and gender and politics. She researches women's political leadership in Africa, with a recent focus on women in parliament and cabinet in Ghana. 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), and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ghana in Accra (2016). During 2019 she was a senior fellow at MIASA (IFG 2 – parliaments and democracy in Africa). She is the co-editor of Women in African Parliaments (2006), Women in Executive Power: A Global Overview (2011), and Gender and the Judiciary in Africa: From Obscurity to Parity (2016) and author or co-author of many articles and book chapters. At the University of Delaware, she directed the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Mandela Washington Fellowship from 2014 to 2018.

Personal (home institution) website; https://www.poscir.udel.edu/people/faculty/gbauer

Sample publications:
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.
‘The President’s Prerogative’? The Cabinet Appointment Process in Ghana and the Implications for Gender Parity. Politics & Gender. 2022. 18: 546-573. Co-authored with Akosua Darkwah.
Women in African Parliaments: Progress and Prospects. In Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso and Toyin Falola, eds. The Palgrave Handbook of African Women’s Studies. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021: 335-352.
‘We Would Rather be Leaders than Parliamentarians’: Women and Political Office in Ghana. European Journal of Politics and Gender. 2020. 3, 1: 101-119. Co-authored with Akosua Darkwah.