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gone a gear up. There are deliberate efforts the world over to restore the status of women in society. I say “restore” because gender inequality is not part of God’s original plan; it is creation of society.

As I said in last week’s article both men and women were made in the image of God. As the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3, God gave both the male and female the responsibility to rule and subdue the earth.
This means that if the world was a normal place then there would be no need for women to fight for space. There is enough space in all sectors for both sexes.

In actual fact there is a productivity gap that has been created due to the marginalisation of women. The World Bank has acknowledged that gender equality is “smart economics” because harnessing talent and skill of women optimally will impact positively on economic development. According to The World Bank 2012 report on Gender Equality and Development, eliminating barriers that exclude women from working in certain sectors reduces the productivity gap between male and female workers by a third to one half.

It will also increase output per worker by 3-25 percent across a range of countries. It has also been said that providing women equal access to inputs and extension services will lead to increased agricultural output in developing countries by 20-30 percent; increase total agricultural production by 2,5-4 percent and in turn reduce the world’s hungry people from 100-150 million.

While we agree that some milestones have been achieved there are more issues still to be addressed. Dear reader, there is still a lot of work do with regards to gender equality. There are real issues to address. There is a greater need now than before to include women into the mainstream economy in order for nations to meet the targets set under the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

When I consider some developments on the social scene where we see a lot of extremism and diversions, I am more convinced that there is need for continuous guidance and direction towards the attainment of gender justice. At this stage it suffices to say that what I call extremism are those radical attitudes that portray men as enemies of the women. Diversions are those issues that I consider to be at the periphery such as matters of dressing, freedom to dance the night away, and partake in some of the social ills that seem acceptable if perpetrated by the men.

We know that we have had instances where women have gone onto the streets to demonstrate against violations of their right to dress the way they want, for example the right to wear miniskirts. While this could be part of the freedoms that the movement seeks to attain as it hinges on the issue of choice, it might not be as critical.

If at this juncture I may digress a bit, I believe that as a people we should never lose sight of our social context as we embrace new developments. As has been said we should not throw away the baby with the bath water. There is need to uphold certain values that define us as a people.

The real issues that affect women and girls are known. There are cases of inheritance squabbles within families. The law has been enacted but we still get women who are dispossessed of their properties out of ignorance of the law and application of cultural laws. I have often heard people talk about sex for marks in tertiary institutions. Cases of child sexual abuse with the girl child being the most affected. Women continue to grapple with issues of lack or inadequate alternative sources of energy and availability of clean water within reasonable distances.

The statistics on child sexual abuse are alarming. When I consider these cases I always ask the question “tochengetera vana kupi?” (where is the safe haven for the children). These are real issues that both women and men should seek to thrash, with women taking the lead because we appreciate more the gravity of such things.

We therefore need to draw up our priorities and work on 20% of the things that bring 80% results.
At the World Telecommunications and Information Society Day  celebrations, Vice President Honourable J T R Mujuru said that women should not be passive recipients of empowerment but active participants who seek to shape their destiny.

This means empowerment be it social or economic cannot be handed down to women but they should set the tone and direct focus to real gender equality issues. Some of the issues at the periphery that we focus on minimise the significance of the cause for gender equality. In my view there is need to rename the quest for gender equality. So often the quest for gender equality is referred to as the “fight for gender equality”. While the fight could be against mindsets, cultural beliefs and attitudes that discriminate against women it might have assumed another meaning. Since the scales were tipped in favour of men the man has become the enemy that we fight against.

What I think though is that the pursuit of gender equality should be referred to as the drive towards gender equality. In my opinion the word “fight” has negative connotations and consequences.

According Thesaurus, “fight” implies exchange of blows, wrestle, battle, competition and struggle to name a few of the synonyms. What this means therefore is that there are warring parties where one has to win while another looses.

You know what follows victory is celebration, which can take any form because of the excitement. It is therefore possible that the behaviour that sometimes manifest amongst the women at gatherings bear testimony to this euphoria. Calling it a fight causes the men to adopt a defensive mood as a way of protecting “their territory”. Although drive has an element of force it is a better word as it also means guiding, directing and maneuvering. I suggest therefore that in our context we call it the gender equality drive as it energises both the men and women to positive action.