Big strides for women empowerment

Op5Ruth Butaumocho Gender Forum
Zimbabwe has come of age and will on Saturday celebrate its 35th independence. April 18 is an important date the calendar where the nation reflects and salutes the gallant sons and daughters who lost their lives so that Zimbabwe could attain sovereignty rule, territorial freedom and equal distribution of wealth.

It is a day that the nation reflects on its sovereignty and the beauty of our freedom. And those two tenets call for the popping of champagne right across, because we are enjoying the benefits of freedom in totality. And millions of Zimbabwean women have got every reason to celebrate this day because the attainment of Independence broke chains of oppression, giving them access to a lot of opportunities they could not enjoy in Rhodesia.

From the time Zimbabwe got independence, the status of women has greatly improved and their fortunes risen, something that would not have been possible, had Zimbabwe remained in bondage.

Many women who grew up under the colonial regime attest that Zimbabwe’s women were the most oppressed in the region.

With little or no education, their repression was not only felt at household level alone, but cut across the political and economic divide, despite their numerical significance.

Rather than be considered as full human beings who could make decisions, their repression was further worsened by the attitudes of colonisers who not only discriminated against them as blacks but also introduced Victorian settler attitudes, where they were regarded as minors, with no say on their welfare.

As a result of their social standing, women were not able to own properties, could not marry without the approval of guardian, although they were mature enough to make their own decisions. They also had no legal right over their own children and could not inherit property in the event the husband died.

Although they contributed as much as men at the workplace, they were taxed much more than men, because their income was considered as additional income to that of their husbands. In the event that they were employed, they were discriminated against in workplaces with unequal wages for the same work. To worsen their situation, they could not afford to become pregnant without losing their jobs or jeopardising their career prospects. Added to these economic impediments, women were also constrained by cultural and traditional attitudes.

When she was not employed, a woman was chained to the kitchen, nursery, to the fields and at her best-child bearing, a role that up to this day remains uncontested.

Soon after the attainment of independence, an era, which signalled opportunities for the liberated black Zimbabwean, women’s fortunes did not change overnight.

This was all happening notwithstanding the fact that Zimbabwe’s women made a spectacular contribution to the country’s attainment of freedom, especially during the liberation struggle, where they fought alongside men. Looking at all the impediments and the current situation, millions of women now have every reason to celebrate the independence of Zimbabwe because there has been a steady, but significant progression of women in all sectors of the economy since independence.

Their progression was necessitated by a number of pieces of legislation, government’s policies towards women’s emancipation and the political will within the current leadership to uplift women. The Government’s positive policy towards the role of women in national development resulted in the creation of a ministry responsible women affairs, gender and development, charged with the responsibility of spearheading the development and advancement of women.

The ministry with the assistance of women’s organisations and other Government ministries have over the years been instrumental in lobbying for progressive legislation and programmes for the advancement of women.

Quota system across sectors have also aide the advancement of women, including in education where the Government had to introduce an affirmative action policy in universities and tertiary colleges to allow the enrolment of girls with less points at A’ Level than their male counterparts.

But of all the things that ably aided the total emancipation of women was the promulgation of the Legal Age of Majority Act. The Legal Age of Majority remains a fundamental piece of legislation which was to be a harbinger and a solid foundation for all the good things that have happened to women’s advancement over the years

In its totality, the law gave both men and women full contractual capacity to make decisions for their well-being on attaining the age of 18. It set the tone for the direction, the women’s emancipation agenda would take.

Many will remember with nostalgia how the “legal age of majority” became a buzz phrase and a fundamental legislative piece that was to end discrimination of women following the enactment of the Legal Age of Majority law in 1982. A product of the independence revolution, the Legal Age of Majority Act, was in itself revolutionary in addressing the central issue of women’s disadvantage under the African customary law: their total lack of capacity to act as legally recognised adults, capable of owning property, entering into contracts and making legally enforceable decisions without having to involve men.

With all these pieces of legislation and political will by the current leadership towards women emancipation, women are smiling their ways to the banks, to the political podiums and now command respectable social standing, thanks to the Government’s commitment to uplift its own people.

Women have become a vital cog of the economy. They have been working hard and the result is there for everyone to see. They have broken the glass ceilings in the academic world, aviation, medicine, business and politics.

For instance in the army, a lot of women now hold powerful ranks once reserved for men. Brigadier General Shylet Moyo, Retired Brigadier General Getrude Mutasa are some of the women within the top echelons of the army, while in the police force; Deputy Commissioner General (Responsible for Crime) Josephine Shambare is holding her head high among men.

Women now hold top and powerful posts in the corporate sector; others are running flourishing businesses, while many have become academic gurus who are now flying the country’s flag high in their respective areas.

Names that easily come to mind include security magnate Divine Ndhlukula, academic Professor Hope Sadza, Eve Gadzikwa, prominent lawyer Florence Ziumbe, Kubi Indi, successful farmer Monica Chinamasa, Depina Nkomo, businesswoman Susan Peters, humanitarian worker Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda who is flying Zimbabwe’s flag high in Switzerland, Grace Muradzikwa and Captain Chipo Matimba

Captain Matimba was the first combat pilot in the Air Force of Zimbabwe, before she retired to join Air Zimbabwe.

The names are just too numerous to mention, an indication that women have not been sitting on their laurels, but have been working hard in their numbers, claiming the space, they could not earlier have.

Their ascendancy has been aided by several Government initiatives that have been put in place to advance their cause. However like any other system the economic and political empowerment of women has not been without hitches and is still riddled with a number of problems, with lack of access to capital being one of the major obstacles. There still exists some attitudes and customs that society still use to discriminate women in different social and economic spaces. There are organizations’ and companies that still have the colonial vestige mentality, where they don’t think women are competent, and have to remain in acting capacities, even though the vacancy may be there.

Be it as it may, Zimbabwe has come of age in uplifting and empowering women across sectors.

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