Global Journal of Applied, Management and Social Sciences (GOJAMSS); Vol.11 February 2016; P.164 – 174 (ISSN: 2276 – 9013) 164 GENDER MAINSTREAMING, A PANACEA FOR QUALITY SERVICE AND GOOD GOVERNANCE: AN INSIGHT INTO THE POLITICAL SYSTEMS IN FRANCOPHONE AFRICA GLORIA MAYEN UMUKORO Department of Modern Languages and Translation Studies, University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria. Email: umukorogloria@gmail.com +2348037227162 & MARY JULIUS EGBAI Department of Philosophy, University of Calabar, Calabar Nigeria. Email: maryegbai77@yahoo.com Abstract We would like to in this presentation begin by asking a simple question. Which of the sexes has the responsibility to govern? At this time, we believe our readers are divided into factions. While many people opine that the males are more responsible because they alone have the natural propensity to govern, there are those who believe that females can as well be given the responsibility to govern, except that they do not have such qualities as the males. Yet again there are those who will belong to the group that says that females should be made to handle less tasking political positions because they are by nature “weaker” than the males. Which school of thought do you belong? While we allow you to ponder on the above, however, this presentation seeks to analyze more comprehensively the need for gender mainstreaming in good governance and seeks to answer the following questions; Is being the President of a country or the Governor of a state, or the Chairman of a local government area a ‘Sex role’ or a ‘Gender role’? Thus, while we disabuse your mind, this communication forms part of the on-going movements on the need to encourage more participation of females in government to enhance quality service and good governance for effective development in any political system. Key words; Gender, Sex role, Gender role, Gender mainstreaming and weaker sex, Definition of some key terms: we will only for the sake of this study attempt a definition of just a few of these key terms o Gender role: roles that each cultural society assigns to either the male or the female gender o Sex role: reproductive roles given to the male or female sex by nature o Gender mainstreaming: o Development: a means of ensuring that there is participation of people in the production, growth and wellbeing of the community o Camerounaise : A female Cameroonian, used in this way to lay emphasis o Gender aware urban planning: policy and planning that takes into consideration the issues bothering all irrespective of gender Introduction The concept of Sex and Gender roles as already stated above, gender roles are regarded as those roles that each cultural society assigns to either the male or the female gender while sex roles are considered the reproductive roles given to the male or female sex by nature. In the course of our research and investigations somewhere in Yaoundé, we ran into a family where a little francophone girl Sophie out of amusement related