WUNRN
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."
================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.