ZIMBABWE: Women Denied Leadership Roles

Margaret Murambiwa (not her real name) of Chavanga village in Mutasa South, situated along the Mozambican border strip is a victim of a retrogressive societal belief that denied her to the right to education.
She was married off at the age of 13 and entirely depended on her husband for social and economic provisions. However, Murambiwa has been a widow for the past 10 years following the death of her husband. She is struggling to make ends meet let alone fend for her five grandchildren and two great grandchildren who have never set foot in a school. “If only I had been sent to school, I wouldn't be suffering like I am right now. I could have afforded to send my grandchildren to school,” she said.
Her struggle is not alien to the biggest chunk of women who constitute 52 per cent of the population. In Zimbabwe, issues of gender equality continue to be grossly misinterpreted as attempts to replace the chauvinistic society with a patriarchal one. Technically, this means that a very small fraction of women end up gainfully employed contributing to the human resource base. Women's minimal participation in gainful employment can be attributed to a number of factors.
Women are not equipped with the most important tool for employment, which is education. Parents neglected their female children's educational needs because they believed the benefits would be reaped by another family when she is married.
This short sightedness nullifies the role of education as a developmental measure, which aims to cultivate a civilised nation by forming a society where both sexes are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by stereotypes, preconceived gender roles or prejudices.
The United Nations Women in Development welfare approach views the absence of women in development plans and policies as a handicap and categorically stated that ‘there has to be gender balance to ensure sustainable development.'
There can be no sustainable development when women who constitute 52% of the population are excluded from key socio-economic activities of the country.
This means the country is hinged on the 48% (male group) against a population of 13 million, which is not fully active since another fraction crossed the borders in search of greener pastures. Surprisingly the country is sitting on a 52% female human resource base that is underutilised.

Gender bias in education

The local education system carries a face that continues to scare away females from taking up challenging tasks despite the formulation of several policies meant to set women on the same footing with their male counterparts. The introduction of a 50-50 gender parity student enrolment, establishment of women universities are a mere formality meant to silence cries from outspoken women who challenged the status quo.
To date of all the six polytechnics, and nine state universities, and all the core technical subjects are male predominated whereas the lowly perceived seven teachers' college and four unpopular private universities records a favourable number of female students. For those who were lucky to get education, there were other stumbling blocks ahead. The only fields that were and still open for training are nursing, teaching, secretarial and other less challenging courses. Also, the biggest population of women is cramped in the informal sector mostly as street vendors.
This shows the effects of educational gender bias, which has been the major challenge behind women misrepresentation and participation in leadership positions. It is against this backdrop that no women hold any position of mayoral, leads a political party or large Christian group in the country. Moreover, there are fewer women who hold high court, labour court, and administrative court judge positions. There are also less female vice chancellors, principals, permanent secretaries, leaders of large trade unions, provincial governors, cabinet ministers, MPs and in the Presidium across the political divide.
The political kitchen is often considered ‘too hot for Zimbabwean women' thereby most of them are either housewives, vendors or forced into prostitution, which is in striking contrast with the agreed preposition of the African Union of a 50-50 ratio between males and females.
This makes a depressing reading exposing the country's backwardness in the area of women participation in strategic issues. Most depressing, in view of the current constitution-making process, the plight of women in Zimbabwe remain unheard due to the polarisation of the process, which is marred by intimidation and violence.
Women's participation in politics has generally been very low. In the most recent election of March 29, 2008 more than 150 female candidates filed their nomination papers ago to contest in particularly the local government and surprisingly women support groups were lobbying for a 30%