The period following major upheavals and sustained processes of destabilisation that take the form of regime change and/or political liberalisation within a society have been acknowledged as unique and rare opportunities for women to effectively advance gender equality and women's rights in formal political institutional contexts. My proposed doctoral study aims to comparatively examine the relationship between the high presence of women in the post-conflict Rwandan and South African parliamentary institution and legislative outcomes that address gender inequality in Rwanda and South Africa. In debates premised on the 'politics of presence' argument and the 'critical mass' argument, influential strands of political feminism argue that women's descriptive representation improves substantive parliamentary outcomes for women. This hypothesis establishes an empirical relationship that anticipates the substantial presence of women in parliament feminising the political agenda, acting on behalf of women and eventually being accountable to women in pursuing women's collective interests. Analysing how women have situated themselves in relation to specific parliamentary outcomes that promote gender equality in these two settings allows a critical engagement with the substantive forms that women's representation has taken in sub-Saharan Africa, which forms an under-researched theme in African knowledge production.