The Sunday Mail
Howdy folks!
THIS year’s International Women’s Day was celebrated last week under the theme “Press for progress” to celebrate social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
Folks, women’s struggle for gender parity has been arduous and they have managed to make significant progress although more still needs to be done.
I have been wondering why women have been left behind for many years. Sometimes I am tempted to think that men are afraid of being outsmarted by the fairer sex.
Even British novelist and author of “Lord of the Flies” William Golding once remarked that; “I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men; they are far superior and always have been”.
I agree with Golding that women are superior to men but I disagree that they are ‘foolish enough to pretend’.
Women are conscious of their capabilities. The greatest undoing is that they are imprisoned by the patriarchal society we live in.
This has been the situation since time immemorial, even during biblical times when a woman was caught in an adultery affair and she was the only one who faced punishment while the man walked scot-free.
In contemporary society, we still have men who oppress women without shame. Some women are punished for drinking the same beer that men enjoy and for dressing whichever way they like.
My point is that men are foolish for pretending to be superior to women.
Democracy entails rule by the majority but given the few women in the corridors of power, it may mean that there is no justice; there is no equality. Women are more than men in numbers but the majority is being ruled by the minority; it’s absurd.
However, it is also pleasant to note the Constitution provides room to address gender inequality in Section 17 (2), which says, “The State must take positive measures to rectify gender discrimination and imbalances resulting from past practices and policies”.
What are some of these “past practices and policies” being cited and what action has been taken to safeguard the rights of women?
Some of the pertinent issues which need to be addressed include land ownership. In the past, women were not allowed to own or inherit land, leaving them disempowered.
According to a 2016 Zimstat report, titled “Understanding Gender Equality in Zimbabwe”, out of all the A2 farmers, only 3,5 percent is owned by women, with men owning the remaining 96,5 percent.
Women also own as little as 16,3 percent of A1 land and 17,6 percent of small scale farms.
These dynamics should change folks.
Section 17(1) (c) of the Constitution says, “The State must take practical measures to ensure that women have access to resources, including land, on the basis of equality with men”.
What practical measures are being implemented?
Part of the reasons why women have limited access to land is because of our patriarchal and cultural systems of inheritance where the boy-child takes over the father’s land. The girl child achinzi anozoroogwa, in other words, marriage is her inheritance.
We cannot conclude the land reform programme without allocating more land to women.
The Good Book says as the Israelites were about to enter Canaan, there were five wise sisters whose father had died and had no male child. These sisters knew that their father’s inheritance would be grabbed by their uncles and they sought help from the powers that be.
“Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son?” they queried.
That day, the Good Book says God Himself crafted a new inheritance law which says, “If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughters.”
As we press for progress, there should be deliberate efforts to address the huge imbalance along gender lines in relation to land ownership.
Folks, you will also realise that in the past, decisions about women were made in their absence as they were not given opportunities to be included in the various spheres of life.
This is despite the fact that Section 17(1) (a) says, “the State must promote the full participation of women in all spheres of Zimbabwean society on the basis of equality with men.”
To attain gender equality, all the barriers blocking the parity must be dealt with.
In political and economic spheres, women are still marginalised as they are not trusted to lead.
Statistics show that of the 1 793 councillors in Zimbabwe, only 15,7 percent are women while only six out of the 276 chiefs are women and 13 out of the 494 masabhuku are of the fairer sex.
These leaders play a key role in making decisions that impact on the daily lives and well-being of communities.
The same should also happen in business. Just ask yourself why only a few companies on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange are led by women.
Of the 31 000 sole proprietor establishments, only 22 percent are women. There is certainly ample room for improvement.
Section 56 (2) of the Constitution says: “Women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres.”
To demonstrate that some women are sometimes treated as second class citizens, they earn less than their male colleagues.
A survey commissioned by a human resources firm, CV People Africa in 2012, for instance, established that women continue to earn less than their male counterparts, with a gender pay gap of 19,4 percent.
Gender pay gap statistics in the agricultural sector, according to Zimstat, show that female employees in the large scale agricultural sector earn 83 percent of what male employees earn. The figure is as low as 78 percent in the A1 sector.
This is despite the fact that Section 65 (6) of the Constitution says: “Women and men have a right to equal remuneration for similar work.”
In the past, women would lose their jobs for getting pregnant and giving birth. They were punished and condemned for bringing life into the world.
Giving birth and taking time to nurse babies was wasted time. Positive strides have been made in addressing this issue with the Constitution now guaranteeing female employees a right to fully paid maternity leave for at least three months.
Cases of women abuse are still rife with some being treated as sex objects. They are often harassed in the streets with some being stripped by uncouth touts.
Section 80 (1) of the Constitution states that: “Every woman has full and equal dignity of the person with men.”
We should not harass women but rather treat them with dignity.
I am glad that the Constitution now protects women in the event of divorce or death as they are allowed custody of children.
Section 80 (2) says: “Women have the same rights as men regarding the custody and guardianship of children.”
It is also worrisome that some women are being subjected to dehumanising cultural practises such as genital mutilation and reed dance against their will. In other cultures, practises such as chinamwari and komba, young women who have not reached marriage age are forced to do sex lessons.
This may lead to child marriages in some instances.
According to Zimstat, 21 percent of women between 15 and 19 years are married, with 2,2 percent of them already divorced.
On the other hand, 1,6 percent boys in the same age group are married.
Girls should spend more years in school before they decide to get married.
Further, some gender norms have resulted in more women than men contracting HIV as women have a weaker position in making sexual decisions.
Of the women between the ages of 20 and 24, nearly 11 percent of them are HIV positive whilst only 3,8 percent of men in the same age group have the virus.
Folks, we have a Constitution which says, in Section 80(3): “All laws, customs, traditions and cultural practices that infringe the rights of women conferred by (the) constitution are void to the extent of the infringement.”
In light of the above, you may want to agree with me that constitutionalism is one of the buttons that have to be pressed for progress on gender equality.
We also need leaders who respect the Constitution to the spirit and letter.
Before I jump on my horse and ride back to the country, happy International Women’s Day to you all!
Later folks!
Clemence Machadu is an economist, researcher and consultant. He writes for The Sunday Mail in his personal capacity.
