The struggle for women's rights and access to education in Zimbabwe is deeply rooted in its history, shaped by colonial legacies, traditional patriarchal structures, and the fight for national liberation. This article examines the progress made, the challenges that persist, and the ongoing efforts to achieve gender equality in the country.
Colonial Era and its Impact on Women
Before colonization, women-especially those of the two major Bantu-speaking groups, the Shona and the Ndebele-had been able to achieve economic and social independence through both agricultural and non-agricultural pursuits, even when their gender often excluded them from land ownership and formal leadership. The extent of female independence that characterized many of these ethnic groups horrified colonial legislators, who in turn made women the target of several of their policies. Black women under colonialism were subjected to both sexism and racism.
Like men, the women were fighting against racial policies put into place as early as 1890, when Cecil Rhodes and his police force of the British South Africa Company, colonized then Mashonaland. Believing in an ideology of innate British superiority, Rhodes claimed that placing the region's ethnic groups under the rule of an all-white government would lead them to a higher level of civilization. Almost immediately, British colonizers introduced their own ideas about women's nature and proper sphere, leading to the creation of a legal structure that distorted the preexisting flexibility of customary laws.
Still, the British colonial regime offered some degree of "emancipation" for women by outlawing child marriage, setting limitations on bride wealth, and prohibiting the marriage of women without their consent. In the first decade of the twentieth century, however, chronic labor shortages soon forced officials to reconsider their policies. In working to appease these men and undo damage to local authority structures, the colonial state agreed to work collaboratively with African leaders who sought to control the physical mobility of women in order to counter alleged promiscuity. This led to a deeper entrenchment of gender inequalities and made women economically dependent upon their husbands.
Women's Role in the Liberation Struggle
Thus, by the 1960s, when the nationalists' vision of freedom was radicalized, women were not only motivated by the conditions that affected their ethnic groups, but their gender specifically. President Mugabe, then a leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), further elicited female support for the war efforts by claiming to recognize their subordination and the need for this injustice to be corrected. Despite all the hardships and troubles of the resistance war, such promises of improvement made it a hopeful time for Zimbabwe's women.
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In seeking to facilitate the transition, countless Zimbabwean women served as membership recruiters for nationalist organizations, or as presidents and secretaries of women's leagues and other women organizations. Like African women in other parts of the continent, Zimbabwean women showed their support by participating in rallies and marches and by raising money. Moreover, as men traveled to find jobs and to participate in warfare, several women were left alone "to contend with all of the problems of poverty, work, and child rearing, together with the additional problems of homelessness and all of the hideous distortions of life that these impose," as Hilda Bernstein describes the similar experiences in South Africa.
In seeking to provide more direct contributions to the war effort, other Zimbabwean women threw off the "feminine" or "natural" labels assigned to them by serving as guerrilla soldiers. Like their female counterparts in Mozambique, who participated in Female Detachment (DF) or the League of Mozambican Women (Lifemo), these women played critical roles in warfare by planning, executing, and participating in the organization of several militant campaigns. For many female activists and fighters, national liberation held forth the tantalizing prospect that it would transform, indeed revolutionize, women's lives and change the relations between the genders.
Post-Independence Era: Progress and Challenges
Immediately after independence from British rule in 1980, ZANU's Women's League-the premiere women's organization in Zimbabwe-was directly tied to the ruling regime. Women were not expected to rally for rights or equality, but rather were instructed to concentrate their efforts on generating support and votes and encouraging the female population to attend parties, rallies, and meetings. Upon returning home, moreover, many female ex-combatants found that a disapproving attitude towards gender equality remained widespread.
Several revealed that members of post war-society labeled them not as heroines, but instead as "loose" women who would not make good wives. Women too enforced and reinforced these gender hierarchies. Even today, ideas about "modern women" who are out to "corrupt and destroy African familial values" remain ubiquitous. Although Zimbabwe can now boast of having one of the highest levels of female education in southern Africa, women's ability to achieve social, political and economic mobility remains largely frustrated.
Reflecting back on her time as a guerrilla fighter in the liberation war, Joyce Mujuru, now Zimbabwe's Vice President, claims her current struggles with the male-dominated bureaucracy and the public are indeed the tougher fight. Experiences like these have led a large number of Zimbabwean women to forego politics altogether. In 2008, although women comprised 52% of the population, they made up only 10% of the Parliament.
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Yet, in 1985, with the United Nations Women's Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, several Zimbabwean women's groups began to forge a new path. No longer willing to limit themselves to safe issues like those of children's rights, several of these groups began to push for radical initiatives like the decriminalization of abortion and the political inclusion of women and gender equality. By 1990, the women's efforts were facilitated by the requirements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that single-party states in Africa who sought loans had to demonstrate that they were working towards multi-party systems.
Legislative Framework and International Conventions
Zimbabwe ratified the Women's Convention on the 13th of May 1991 without reservations, thereby agreeing to pursue active measures to eliminate discrimination against women by both State and non-state actors. The protection of human rights at the national level is fashioned by the normative and institutional frameworks that exist in a particular country. The major thrust of this paper is to examine the progress, as well as the gaps, from a legislative viewpoint in advancing the rights of women in Zimbabwe.
A country-specific analysis allows for a clear understanding of the nature of the constitutional and legal framework under which human rights instruments are expected to materialize. In Zimbabwe the Constitution is the highest law of the land and any law inconsistent with the Constitution is void to the extent of that inconsistency. As such, under the Constitution, international instruments do not automatically form part of the law unless approved by Parliament or have been incorporated into the law by an Act of Parliament.
Education for Girls and Women: A Key to Empowerment
At independence, the Zimbabwean Government committed to provide education for all irrespective of race, gender or religion. Zimbabwe’s education system encompasses 13 years of primary and secondary school. There are seven grades in primary school while secondary school is split into two levels; lower secondary covering Forms One to Four and upper secondary covering forms Five and Six.
Equal numbers of boys and girls complete primary school, but by the time they graduate to secondary school, there are half as many girls as boys. Sanitation challenges have also pushed girls out of school. Natural disasters like the El Nino induced drought, which has hit Southern Africa have also forced many girls out of school. In the patriarchy system, male traits are more valued than those of females. When given more education, women are also able to control their lives and are successful to bringing down rapid population growth because they have more say in family planning.
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Colonial policy was race specific. Education was free and compulsory for Whites only. Black parents paid fees for a son's education. Post colonialism and in 1971, only 43.5% of Black children were enrolled in school, of which 3.9% were in secondary school. Only 19 girls with at the highest level in school. School curriculum was gender based, which meant girls were taught cooking and typing. During independence, education policy was instituted, and education was considered as a human right and gender neutral. Tuition fees in primary grades were eliminated, and education was expanded.
However, changes after independence did not result in equal advantage for girls. By 1985-91, girls had lower enrollments at all grade levels. The widest gaps in enrollment were at the highest levels. School curriculum changed very little, and girls were directed to the "feminine" courses of study. Girls performed poorly in math and sciences. Girls were underenrolled in technical and vocational institutions. After 1989, structural adjustment programs negatively impacted on women. There was reduced access to employment, limited access to services, and increased demands on women's time in order to compensate for gaps created by cuts in services. New changes in education policy are expected to negatively impact on girl's education. Fees for primary school were reintroduced in urban areas, and secondary school fees were increased. The government dropped the requirement of certification for technical and commercial education, which could benefit the 64% of women employed in the informal sector.
Transitional Justice and Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace in Zimbabwe
WOZA: A Beacon of Hope
Since its creation in 2003, WOZA has grown from a handful of activists encouraging women and their families to stand up for their rights to a membership of almost 75,000. WOZA's protests center on the devastating impact of Zimbabwe's failing economy. The economic situation is partly the result of a dramatic decline in agricultural production tied to Mugabe's highly criticized fast track land reform in 2000. As Mugabe explains it, the purpose of his bill was to redistribute land, largely to the poor and dispossessed.
President Obama likened WOZA members to civil rights activists around the world, but especially those of the civil rights movement in the United States and apartheid struggles in South Africa-Zimbabwe's neighbor. After describing the courageous acts of WOZA activists in painstaking detail, President Obama invited Mrs. Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert F. The award, instituted in 1984 and named in honor of Robert Kennedy after his 1968 assassination, honors human rights defenders "across the globe doing a wide range of urgent work," which includes, "fighting to end apartheid, advance democracy, empower minorities and indigenous peoples, and promote free speech and elections and more." Recipients of the award are guaranteed five years of on-going legal, advocacy and technical support through a partnership with the Robert F.
In accepting the award, WOZA's founders and leaders, Magodonga Mahlangu and Jenni Williams, immediately joined the ranks of past awardees like Winnie Mandela of South Africa and Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah of Sudan. The women's concerns revolve not only around the devastated economy, but also the Global Political Agreement. This agreement is the power-sharing deal that Mugabe crafted with opposition leaders after his political defeat in late 2008. As the women explain, however, little "has been done …to ensure there is a secure environment for people to participate" in the democratic process. For this reason, WOZA members have resolved to continue the fight despite continuous repression for their outspokenness. In conscious practice, they refuse to be beaten down.
Like members of other women's organizations in Zimbabwe, WOZA members recognize that the general population deserves better. In accepting the 2009 Human Rights award, both Mahlangu and Williams passionately proclaimed that "they were not afraid of Mugabe's degrees in violence." Rather, they uphold their "degrees in non-violence" as ways to ensure freedom for all the nation's citizens. And as citizens, the women assert: "We deserve to have a roof over our head, food in our stomachs, our children in schools and the nation working.
For their efforts, the group has captured and held international attention for the past three years. In March of 2007, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice awarded the International Women of Courage Award to Williams. In November of 2008, WOZA won the 5th Human Rights Award from the Amnesty International German Section. WOZA's second visit to Washington in November 2009 was more than just recognition of their travails and triumphs, but also an active move for American foreign policy in the region. WOZA leaders used the event to continue to garner international attention for their efforts. They encouraged viewers to support their choices and to help implement them. Particularly, they described their fears of continued cycles of violence that had grown since Mugabe's political deal.
For women in Zimbabwe, the 2009 Robert F. Even more, the award can be viewed as a "back door effort" to undermine Mugabe's power since both the US and EU have failed to garner any meaningful UN condemnation. Most importantly, the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award ceremony provided substance to "development" language that realizes the centrality of women.
Challenges Faced by Women's Groups
Given an "environment of brutal and unrelenting state oppression," as WOZA describes it, many women's groups in Zimbabwe have once again developed a focus on local interests or non-controversial agenda items (similar to women's groups of the early 1980s). In both rural and urban areas, mutual-aid, self-help, benevolent, and market groups provide services for their members and engage in welfare activities that offer training in practical skills. This type of work is low risk, mostly approached in an apolitical manner and unlikely to attract unwanted attention.
Yet, although these types of organizations are the most numerous, representing the largest group in African civil society, their members, especially those in rural areas, are often plagued by family concerns, a lack of time, or expertise. Other problems faced by women's groups include poor resources and intense competition. Beginning in the 1980s, outside donors began to place a greater emphasis on aiding organizations in civil society. Of these, women's organizations were and still are among the main beneficiaries.
The result has been an excessive duplication of agenda items and the ignoring of others, like public advocacy. As well, there is often unwillingness on the part of many to support female politicians belonging to groups other than their own. As Gisela G. It is also true in the last few years that many women's groups in Zimbabwe, like WOZA, have become more aware of these shortcomings and are making efforts to address them.
Still, Mahlangu and Williams foresee dignity and proper food, shelter, and education occurring only with the formation of a new government-one that is transparent and includes women. WOZA's approach, then, is quite different from several of its peers. At the RFK Human Rights award ceremony, Williams described her disappointment in government leaders in Zimbabwe who continue to disregard women's concerns and democratic aspirations.
Enrollment of girls and boys in primary and secondary school
| School level | Boys | Girls |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | 50% | 50% |
| Secondary | 66.67% | 33.33% |
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