ZIMBABWE: A "Can Do" Approach to Greater Political Involvement of Women

Tonderai Kwidini

HARARE, Dec 30 (IPS) - With general elections expected to take place in Zimbabwe this coming March, a campaign is underway to increase women's political participation in the Southern African country.

The initiative is a revitalised version of the ཮-50' campaign, which began last year but failed to gain momentum. Now, activists are campaigning under the slogan 'Women can do it!'. The effort is being spearheaded by the Women's Trust, a non-governmental organisation based in the capital of Harare, and is receiving support from the Norwegian government.

"The campaign provides a structure and action to mobilise Zimbabwean women to get involved in the electoral process and constitutional debates as candidates and voters," Luta Shaba, executive director of the Women's Trust, told IPS.

"We want to thrash out issues that are stopping us as women from getting into power and making transformative changes to the lives of women."

The campaign brings together women from political parties, civil society organisations, the private sector and educational institutions throughout the country. In a declaration issued after an August conference for the initiative, held in Harare, supporters of the campaign made several demands, including that 50 percent of candidates for political parties be women -- and for the introduction of proportional representation.

At present, candidates with the most votes, by whatever margin, are elected to the presidency and parliament. Proportional representation would see candidates allocated seats according to their parties' share of the vote, a system that is often viewed as more effective for getting higher numbers of women into decision-making posts.

The declaration also recommends that half of party funding provided by government be reserved for women candidates.

Women constitute 52 percent of the population in Zimbabwe, according to the Central Statistical Office's most recent census, conducted in 2005.

However, they hold only 19 percent of cabinet posts, 17 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament and 36.6 percent in the senate, according to figures from the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development. They also hold 12 percent of seats in urban councils, and 28 percent of those in rural councils.

The mismatch between the number of women in Zimbabwe and their presence in politics is something for which women must shoulder part of the blame, says Women's Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri.

"The 'PHD' or 'Pull Her Down' syndrome has worked against us women. I am worried by the extent to which we have internalised our own oppression and take this out by oppressing other women. We are jealous and do not want to see other women succeed," she told another conference held in Harare under the auspices of 'Women can do it', this time in October.

"We tend to vote for men because our lived experiences have conditioned us to be subordinates," added Muchinguri, who heads up the Women's League of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

The minister also pointed a finger at the way in which women's traditional responsibilities tend to rule out other pursuits: "The patriarchal nature of our society relegates women to the domestic sphere...The roles of women as mothers and carers make it impossible for them to be effective in full time politics."

In addition, "Politics cost money and women often do not have resources to fund their election campaigns because women are economically dependent and lack access to basic resources."

Certain activists further note that even if women are not confined to the home, perceptions that they belong there may undermine their chances of winning political office.

Zimbabwe has taken steps to help women break free of these constraints. A National Gender Policy that has been in place since 2004 aims -- in part -- to have 52 percent of decision-making posts occupied by women.

The country is a signatory to the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) 1997 Declaration on Gender and Development, which set a goal of having 30 percent of decision-making posts in member states in female hands by 2005 (although few countries in SADC reached this target, it has since been adjusted to having women occupy 50 percent of decision-making posts).

Zimbabwe is also party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which requires signatories to root out discrimination against women in political and public life.

But, warns Alice Kwaramba, assistant programme officer for human rights and democracy building at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, a foundation based in Johannesburg, this all amounts to more bark than bite.

"The ceremonial act of placing signatures on paper has remained ceremonial and has not been accompanied by actions that translate into tangible transformation of the status of women," she told IPS.

A question that begs asking is whether activists will be able to muster broad support for greater women's participation in politics at a time when Zimbabweans are preoccupied by the severe political and economic problems afflicting their country.

Hyper-inflation and widespread poverty have put basic commodities beyond the reach of many, and the United Nations World Food Programme estimates that about four million people in the country will require food aid next year.

Various legislative changes that hold out the promise of easing controls on opposition activity and the media are working their way through parliament, this after years of government crackdowns on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), rights activists and journalists -- and a number of elections marred by irregularities. SADC-mediated talks between government and the MDC are also underway.

However, as rights watchdog Amnesty International observed in a Dec. 14 statement, "government continues to beat and torture human rights defenders and political opponents, despite the ongoing mediation process being facilitated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC)."

Notes MDC member of parliament Trudy Stevenson: "On top of these economic and social challenges, female politicians are usually the targets of campaign violence. They cannot afford to hire bodyguards like their male counterparts. Violence meted against female candidates in elections is real."

"I partly blame it on the patriarchal society in which we are living where women are ascribed certain roles, of which political participation is not one. I think as an opposition MP I fall between two stools as a woman...neither commanding the respect of my colleagues or those from the opposite side," she told IPS.

"Female MPs are very few but our politics is common because we all suffer from violence meted (out to) us by competing male politicians, and at times it can be very lonely being a female MP in Zimbabwe." (END/2007)


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