Saturday 8 March 2014

How Empowered is the Zimbabwean Woman Today?

How Empowered is the Zimbabwean Woman Today?


Kabeer (2001) views women’s empowerment as a process through which women gain the ability to take ownership and control of their lives.

In 1995, the Zimbabwe Government created the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development to oversee coordination of all gender programmes and to facilitate gender mainstreaming in all sector ministries. Moreover, so that Zimbabwe's women can inherit wealth and ascend to traditional Chieftainships without gender hindrances.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Government of Zimbabwe (2004) defined empowerment as the creation and expansion of one’s knowledge, skills decision making and other power bases that gives individuals the capacity and capability to exercise influence and leadership on their own.

Briefly, the key elements of empowerment that are of paramount importance, are the expansion of choices, capabilities and ability to make those strategic choices and control over resources and means of production.

On the political front, Zimbabwe has also made considerable progress in
implementing the provisions of the stand alone SADC Protocol on Gender
Development and has become one of the pioneers in the region in terms of enhancing women's full participation in the governance and political institutions of society such as Parliament and the judiciary. As part of this effort, the Zimbabwean Government is addressing the gaps in gender representation in governance and political institutions of the country. In this regard, the Government continues to promote proportional representation in the legislative assembly as a means of politically empowering women.

Political parties in Zimbabwe have adopted a quota system which has seen an increase in women's representation in politics even though this is still below the 30% quota set by the African Union and the 50% gender parity set in the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

While domestic violence is a social ill that continues to inflict immeasurable social costs within our Zimbabwean society, Zimbabwe has made strides to eliminate violence against women and this was done through the legislation of the Domestic Violence Act in 2007. However, pervasive inequalities still exist and a lot still needs to be done to achieve set targets.

As part of its ongoing commitment to empower women, on 19 July 2012, the Government of Zimbabwe launched the Broad Based Women's
Economic Empowerment Framework (BBWEE) which is a medium-term
development plan whose principal objective is gender equality and
the empowerment of women in all sectors of the national economy.

The framework outlines key strategies on how to fully integrate women in the entire value chain of the economic sectors in line with the Indigenization and Empowerment Act as well as other regional and international gender mainstreaming instruments such as the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development as well as CEDAW.

Zimbabwe recently introduced the Gender Responsive
Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI) whose goal is to equip
local policy makers, economists, budget officers and other development
practitioners with the expertise and ability to mainstream gender aspects into economic development policy formulations.

Zimbabwe is proud to be among the first five African states to introduce the initiative and we are confident that it will go a long way in overcoming gender imbalances in our national economic development and the support being extended to it by various stakeholders and partners in its effort to advance the status of women in the country.

Zimbabwe has made great strides in empowering women, whose achievements can be seen in industry, education, business and many other fields.

The 2010 to 2020 period has been declared the African Women’s Decade.

Though the idea of a women’s decade had been muted by the United Nations (UN) back in 1975, it had to take years for Africa to implement it.

Two years into the African Women’s Decade, Joyce Banda became Malawi’s first woman president while former South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma became the chairperson of the African Union Commission.

In 2006, Shirleen Johnson had become the first female president of Liberia.

But two years earlier, Zimbabwe had advanced the cause of women by appointing Cde Joyce Mujuru as the country’s first female vice president.  Cde Mujuru however is not the only Zimbabwean woman who has been empowered by the system.  Through education and deliberate policies, many Zimbabwean women have been uplifted to powerful positions.



Zimbabwe’s first female university vice chancellor, Professor Primrose Kurasha is one of those. Recently, she won three world education congress global awards in India in recognition of her excellent work in education.

Another achiever, Codchem Pvt Ltd Managing Director and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority board chairperson, Mrs. Marah Hativagone says, “ the government after independence enacted laws to protect women, acknowledging the capability of women in reviving the country’s economy and positively impacting on their families, communities, nations and even the world at large”.

Zimbabwe has successfully advanced the legal and educational status of women removing certain gender barriers. In addition, technology within various economic sectors, including tourism, has advanced enough to make certain tasks less
labour intensive, helping facilitate the removal of gender affiliated barriers.

Despite these advancements, men continue to dominate certain sub-sectors. In analyzing why this was so women agreed that other reasons such as exposure/limited information about certain sectors, lack of strategic resources, the procedures and financial matters were more critical barriers in Zimbabwe than gender perceptions.

Educated and skillful women can also access better opportunities to invest on parallel grounds with men. Through training women are better able to pursue equal employment, funding and investment opportunities. In addition, the sector has transformed over the years from a physical labour intensive sector to an intellectual capacity driven sector.

The National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Charter, which sets out the principles and framework for achieving indigenisation and economic empowerment, includes provisions for "equal opportunities for all, including gender sensitive ownership and participation in the economy by indigenous Zimbabweans.

Government has adopted the Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative to mainstream gender into macro- economic and finance policy development and implementation, economic planning and economic policy analysis so that policies deliver equally to low income women and men.

The Medium Term Economic Recovery Plan, Government expressly committed itself to advancing the participation of women in the productive sectors of agriculture, mining, tourism, manufacturing and construction through practical solutions to meaningfully empower women."

A 2009 study by Smith-Hunter and Mboko concluded that Zimbabwean female business owners have strong entrepreneurial competence but lack the ability and support systems to develop their firms to their full potential.


Women are important for sustainable development in that they:

(i) have a key role in economic development of marginalized communities and ultimately poverty reduction; Particularly women can provide unique tourism products and services such as crafts, traditional food and traditional villages experiences thereby creating opportunities for poverty reduction.
(ii) are the most users of natural resources and provide the greatest contribution towards environmental sustainability and play a key role in the conservation of landscapes that provides the tourism experience mostly through ecotourism
(iii) Are an integral part of local culture particularly in the preservation and protection of local artifacts; and
(iv) Are most suitably positioned to capitalize and benefit from partnerships through not only tourism activities, but also through biodiversity-based enterprise, markets for ecosystem services, the infrastructural developments related to tourism.

The 1995 IV UN Beijing International Conference on Women adopted women’s economic empowerment as one of the key strategies for achieving gender equality and economic development in the long run.

The conclusion was re-emphasised under the sustainable development debate. A number of global and regional development players, including the World Bank, UNWTO, SADC and developing countries in the region, including Zimbabwe have come to the conclusion that gender equality and women’s economic empowerment is a potent force for accelerated poverty reduction and sustainable development.

Women are major players in agriculture and informal sector.  Institutional and legal barriers hamper the ability of women to formalise and grow their businesses, create jobs and enhance productivity in a way different from men.  There is evidence, especially at the micro level, to indicate that gender disparities not only disadvantage women but also reduce growth potential of the region as whole. This realization has shaped development programmes in Africa at all levels and justifies the focus on women.

“There are women out there who end up in situations where they have to go it alone and find themselves filling the roles of mother, father, breadwinner, friend, disciplinarian, counselor, educator and the list goes on. In some situations even where there is a father figure in the picture, some women find themselves having to take on these roles. Whatever the case may be, it is amazing how they manage to build up an uncanny resilience to all of these challenges that life has to throw at them. Their end game is to make sure that they provide the best of what they can for their  family.” Strive Masiyiwa 

Investing in women is smart economics

Happy International Women’s Day!

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Glorianne Francis is the ZANU PF UK Women’s League Secretary for Administration and writes in her own representative capacity.

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