By Sharon Jackson
I
have learnt in
life that you
choose to look
at your glass
as either half
empty or half
full. This particular
philosophy comes in handy in
the women’s movement.
For some women
their glass is
always half empty
hence there are
always complaining and
are always looking
for faults in
any measures put
in place to
ensure equality between
the sexes. It
is never wrong
to ask and
demand for more
as women but
sometimes it is
also wise to
look for the
silver lining in
every cloud. For
some of us
who choose to
look at our
glass as half
full we totally
embrace any measure
set aside for the
empowerment of women,
we choose to focus
on the pros
rather than the
cons. Statistics on the ground
reveal that women
constitute more than
half of the
population in Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, Zimbabwean women
have not benefited
from being the
majority as highlighted
by highlighted by their low economic, social and
political status women
in the society.
It is interesting
to note that
men have unscrupulously ‘benefited’
from being the
minority as they
use their minority
status to justify dating
or marrying more
than one women.
The language on
the street is ‘vakadzi
vakawandisa saka tikaita
one one vamwe
vanoshaya varume.’
On the
other hand women’s lack
of political voice
and presence greatly
disadvantaged and still
disadvantages them, given
that this is
where laws and
policies that affect
both men and
women are made.
Hence the underrepresentation of
women means that
women are invisible
and largely absent
in the making of
the law. Feminists
have always condemned
the law as
patriarchal due to
the fact that
in cases where
the governments that do
not prioritise women’s
issues and rights
the law tends
to work against
women. An increase in
female parliamentarians translates to
more gender aware
policies. For example
an increase in
the number of
female parliamentarians in
Zimbabwe owing to the quota
system has seen
the implementation of
gender aware laws such as
the law to
end child marriages
by increasing the
legal age of
marriage to 18
years. This only
seves to show
that the voice
of the woman
is vital.
Women’s under-representation in
politics has always
been issue as
highlighted by The
Declaration on Gender
and Development, signed by the
SADC heads of state and government in 1997, commits
member states to
use ‘whatever methods available to
increase the participation of women at all levels of decision making to 30%
by 2005. Dawn
only came for
the Zimbabwean women on 22nd
of May
2013 when the new Constitution
of Zimbabwe was signed into
law and the
Constitution included the
much talked about quota
system. Quotas are a mechanism
used to increase
the number of
female representation in politics.
Therefore the quota
system stipulated that women must constitute a certain
number or percentage of the members of a body whether
it is a candidate list, a parliamentary assembly, a committee, or a government.
Today, quota systems aim at ensuring that women constitute at least a
‘critical minority’ of 30 or 40 per cent. Quotas may be applied as
a temporary measure, that is
to say, until
the barriers for women's entry into politics are removed.
Thus the entrance
in politics for
women had been
paved.
To my fellow
sisters that choose
to see the glass
as half empty
and argue that
quotas are against
the principle of
equal opportunity for all, since
women are given
preference . I stand
to point out
that quotas do not discriminate against men but they
simply re right the
wrongs of the
past and remove
barriers. Quotas also
do not imply
that politicians are
elected because of
their gender, not because
of their qualifications and
that more qualified
candidates are pushed
aside. The political
field is described
as a rough
terrain and oftentimes
labelled as a
‘dirty game’ making
it a male
preserve , all these
somewhat biased sentiments
have served to
make women shy
away from politics
and this poses as an
actual barrier that
prevents women from
taking an active
role in politics hence impedes
women from holding
positions as man. The
quota system is a temporary
measure and was
stipulated to be in
effect for the first two
Parliaments elected after
the Constitution came
into effect that
is to say
2013 and 2018. This
means that we
are only left
with less than 2
years before the
quota system is
removed . It
cannot be ignored
that as a
result of the quota
system women’s representation in Parliament more
than doubled from
17 per cent
following the 2008
general elections, to 35
per cent in
the elections on
31 July 2013. It has
also been noted that without the
quota, the percentage of
women in the
National Assembly would
have dropped from
18 percent to 12
percent. Just as
a reminder the
2013 election is
that election where
His Excellency President
Robert Mugabe resoundingly
beat the opposition
by a wide
margin of 61
percent over the opposition’s
meagre 33 percent;
so it was
a victories election
for the people’s
party ZANU PF
and the women’s
movement. Both outcomes
have been called
historic . The quota
system indeed broke
new ground in
the Zimbabwean women’s
movement. Imagine
if the African American
suffragettes like Sojourner
truth, Margaretta Forten and Ida B
Wells were to visit this
dispensation one wonders
how they would
react to the
reality that not
only women could vote or
be voted for
but as due
to the introduction
of the quota
system women would
have reserved seats. Maybe if one
looked at the
quota system in the eyes
of old suffragettes one
would appreciate that
the women’s movement
has surely come
a long way
and we as
women are by
no means stopping
the fight for
recognition and relevancy. Our
dream of achieving
gender parity in
political representation is
not farfetched. Our
sisters in Rwanda
have shown us
that it can
be done, Rwanda has
57 percent female
representation in parliament
, the highest number
of female parliamentarians in
the whole world.
One wise men
once said the
journey of a
thousand miles begins
with a single
step. As women
we acknowledge that
there is need
for cultural and
social perception of the involvement
of women in
politics which is
a breeding ground
for stereotypes and
biases which serves
to weaken women
in politics. Due
to the existence
of such factors
as a nation
we fall short of the 50 percent target in the
SADC Protocol on Gender
and Development for
2015. However,
lets embrace the
quota system as
women with the
assistance of our
fellow men to
achieve gender parity in both ZANU
PF and the
government.
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