UNIT 1

UNDERSTANDING GENDER
By
Efiritha Chauraya and Tenson Mugodzwa

1. 1 Introduction

Although women have made important gains in terms of accessing vital

resources useful for social mobility in Zimbabwe and the world over, they
are still socially disadvantaged as men continue to hold positions of relative
privilege. This inequality is often thought to reflect innate differences
between the sexes but it is actually a creation of society itself. Research has
revealed that sex is a pervasive element in the structure of society and in the
`lives of people. It shapes other people’s views of us as well as our own self-
concepts.

This module is an ‘introduction to gender studies’ hence an understanding of

the term gender is important. In gender studies we are neither interested in
women as a group nor with men as a group but in the social relations
between them. In this unit we make you have an understanding of gender as
a concept. We also clarify some selected concepts central to the study of
gender. The explanations offered are neither comprehensive nor definitive.
They are only intended to help you explore key ideas about the concepts.
You will develop a deeper understanding when you read about them in the
subsequent chapters. The unit also covers how gender is socially constructed
through the family, the school, the peer group and the mass media. Although
there are many types of gender socialisation, in this unit we focus on
Oakley’s types of gender socialisation.

1.2 Unit Objectives

After studying this unit, you should be able to:
● Define and explain gender
● Differentiate between gender and sex
● Define and explain some key concepts in relation to gender
● Discuss how gender is socially constructed, maintained and perpetuated
● Examine the various types of gender socialisation

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 1.3 Gender and related concepts.
To best understand the term gender it is essential to first understand the term
sex as these two terms are often confused and sometimes used
interchangeably.

Sex
According to Macionis (1989), sex refers to the division of humanity into
biological categories of male and female. As a biological distinction, sex is
determined at the moment a child is conceived. Sex is also defined as the
biological differences between men and women, that is, “…their physical
characteristics: external genitalia, internal genitalia, gonads (the organs
which produce sex cells), hormonal states and secondary sex
characteristics.” (Haralambos and Holborn, 2004: 94). Sex is therefore a fact
of biology, which is the physiological distinctiveness or state of being male
or female.

Gender

Gender refers to human traits linked by culture to each sex (Haralambos and
Holborn, 2004).Within a society; males are socialized to be masculine as
females are taught to be feminine. Walter and Manion (1996) maintain that
gender is the difference that sex makes within a society, guiding how we are
to think of ourselves, how we interact with others, the social opportunities,
occupations, family roles and prestige allowed males and females.

“Gender can also be defined as a set of characteristics, roles and behaviour

patterns that distinguish women from men which are constructed not
biologically but socially and culturally” (Gita Sen in Towards Earth Summit
2002:1). Like the variable concepts of class, race, ethnicity, culture and
economics, gender is an analytical tool for understanding social processes
that affect human beings. The following table1.1 helps you differentiate
between gender and sex.

Table 1.1 Differentiating gender from sex.

Sex Gender
● Is in born ● Starts the moment the sex is known.
● Is biologically determined ● Is socially constructed.
● Is exclusive to a particular sex and is ● Varies within and among cultures.

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 fixed. It does not change over time, once
born male always male and once born
female always female.
● Is universal, that is, the organs that
determine a male or a female are uniform
the world over for example the penis for
the males and the vagina for the females.
● Is natural.
Different individuals and societies give
different meanings to maleness and
femaleness.
● The attributes, expected roles, expected
behaviours and expected responsibilities
that go with maleness and femaleness
differ from society to society,
community to community and from
individual to individual.
● Is learnt

Activity 1.1
● What is your understanding of gender?
● Why do you think ‘gender’ is a contemporary issue in your country today?
Sex roles
Sex roles are duties, activities, tasks or responsibilities that males and
females perform or undertake that are an inevitable product of one’s biology,
for example, breastfeeding for females and impregnating for the males. Like
sex, these assignments are biologically determined, fixed, universal and
exclusive to a particular sex.

Gender roles
Gender roles are duties, chores, tasks, responsibilities or assignments that a
particular cultural group consider appropriate for its males and females on
the basis of the meaning attached to their sexual identity. These roles are not
a direct or an inevitable product of males’ or females’ biology e.g. caring for
children by females and mending a puncture for males.
They are learnt, vary within and among cultures, dynamic, interchangeable
and can be affected by factors like class, religion, age, race, education,
geographical location and ethnicity.

Gender Equality
When we say 2+2=4, we mean that the value of 2+2 and the value of 4 are
the same. In gender equality, we are interested in the same valuation of men
and women and sameness of enjoyment of rights, power, opportunities,
treatment and control of resources between males and females in society. We
are also interested in the sameness in enjoying of the benefits from

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resources. Gender equality is therefore not only the absence of
discrimination and bias, but “… the equal valuing by society of both the
similarities and differences between women and men and the varying roles
that they play” (Gender Equality Analysis Policy-Status of Women Canada
page 5).It does not mean that men and women will become the same. No.
But they will have same opportunities in life. An example of practicing
gender equality is according men and women enjoyment of asame voting
rights. Gender equality, therefore, “denotes the equivalence in life outcomes
for women and men, recognizing their different needs and interests and
requiring a redistribution of power and resources” (Bridge Report No.
55:10).

Gender Equity
Gender equity is a process of achieving fairness and justice among men and
women. The fairness and justice is in relation to distribution of
opportunities, responsibilities and resources as well as in accessing and
controlling the benefits from the resources. “To ensure fairness, measures
must often be made available to compensate for historical and social
disadvantages that prevent women and men from operating on a level
playing field” (Gender Equality Analysis Policy- Status of Women Canada
page 5).
Gender equity also entails proportional distribution of social resources and
services, as well as proportional representation of men and women in the
development process, that is, the composition of males and females at all
levels should closely represent the general population. What we mean here is
that, if we are practicing gender equity, say in our enrolment of male and
females into university then the ratio of males to females should be
commensurate with the national population ratio of 48:52. Gender equity
leads to gender equality.

Gender bias
Gender bias is the tendency to be in favour of, or against males and females
on the basis of their gender rather than on anything else, like what some
teachers do when they take only females for fashion and fabrics because of
their stereotypical belief that women are better at sewing than men.

Gender Discrimination
Gender discrimination is an act of unfair treatment directed against an
individual or a group on the basis of their gender which denies them rights,
opportunities or resources. When universities lower entry points for only

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female students, (whatever the reasons may be) they will be discriminating
against the male students. Gender discrimination can be positive or negative
and whether positive or negative, differential treatment is given to males and
females on basis of their gender.

Gender Neutrality
This is the claim that one is indifferent to issues of gender as he/she has no
ultimate gender practice. It assumes that all people are affected by
programmes or polices in the same way. “It is premised on the theory that all
people are already equal, therefore treating all people the same way is
fair,” (Women’s Policy Office, Government of Newfound land and Labrador
(undated) Facilitator’s Guide, Gender Inclusive Analysis….An Overview St
Johns, NF, p.14) like what most universities do when they give one tissue
roll to every student in residence for a specified period of time. Female
students, by virtue of their biology require more tissue paper. It thus may not
allow for sensitivity to disadvantages, hence it replicates stereotypes and
restrictive views of males and females.

Gender Blindness
When one is blind one cannot see. Gender blindness is total failure, out of
sheer gender ignorance, to recognize the differences between males and
females and subsequently leads to failure to provide or cater for the
differences.
Gender blind people fail to realize that policies, programmes and activities
can have different effects on men and women and this often leads to rigidity
and unchanging attitudes. It is a characteristics feature of conservative
societies, where gender bias and discrimination is orchestrated on ill
knowledge and innocence. A good example is what happened at a certain
school which had been originally a boys’ only school and then decided to
become co-educational. The school administration made girls stay in hostels
that were previously boys’. The toilets in these hostels had urinals and the
administration did not see anything wrong with that. This is gender
blindness.
Gender Sensitivity
Imagine entering a bus which is ferrying students from your university
home and you find that 90% of the bus load is males and the majority of
those that failed to enter the bus are females. You will obviously sense a gap
of something between male students as a group and female students as a
group. What is it that you are sensing? You are right!-that, whatever the

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reason, there is a gender gap between men and women. You see, you are
becoming gender sensitive. Gender sensitivity is the mere ability to perceive
existing gender inequalities. It is gender perceptiveness or gender
consciousness, which is, looking at an issue with a gender eye. It is the
beginning of gender awareness.

Gender Awareness
In the example of the bus situation given immediately above, what do you
think is the cause of the problem given that the passengers in the bus were
self drawn from a population of equal numbers between males and females?
You are now searching for the possible gender problems. You are now
becoming gender-aware. Gender awareness is, therefore, the ability to
identify problems arising from gender discrimination and bias which affect
men’s and women’s ability to access and control resources and /or even
access and control of benefits from the resources is gender awareness. It is
still gender awareness even when and where the problems are disguised and
defended as culture and tradition.

Gender Responsiveness
What solutions would you offer in the transport problem above so that
females are not discriminated against? You are now becoming gender
responsive. Gender responsiveness mainly constitutes responding to gender
issues with a view to eradicate the bias and discrimination in order to ensure
equality and equity (FAWE, 2004).It is the ability to visualise and
practicalise gender equity and gender equality. You see, it starts from gender
sensitivity to gender awareness then to gender responsiveness. For detail we
refer you to Unit 7.

Feminism
Feminism is a social and political movement aimed at defending and
expanding the rights of women. It is both a cause and a result of the
changing positions of women in society. It is also an ideology, which
recognizes the systematic discrimination against women on the grounds of
their gender. Feminism gives commitment to work towards correcting the
undesirable situation of women. It challenges the idea that gender like sex is
natural. For detail we refer you to Unit 2.

Patriarchy

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Patriarchy is a social system that propagates male superiority, power and
control over women as natural. It oppresses exploits and subordinates
women. In patriarchal societies leadership roles, control of valuable
resources and decision making is a male preserve. Patriarchy draws a clear
demarcation line between males and female. It also creates a social
stratification with males always on top. Meena (1992) says that, in
patriarchy, even the weakest man has a woman to oppress and exploit. In
patriarchy women are perceived as perpetual minors who cannot take
independent decisions. It is in short, “systematic societal structures that
institutionalize male physical social and economic power over women”
(Bridge Report No. 55:29). For detail we refer you to Unit 2.

Gender Mainstreaming
“…..is the process of assessing the implication for women and men of any
planned action; including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area
and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s
concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the policies and programmes
in all political, economic, and societal spheres so that women and men
benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to
achieve gender equality.” (Towards Earth Summit, 2002: 2).It is a strategy
to achieve gender equality that was universally adopted at the fourth world
conference on women in 1995, at Beijing- a means to the bigger end of
attaining gender equality. For detail you go to Unit 7.

Gender Empowerment
This is one of the words that are difficulty to define because of taking
different forms in different people and different contexts. Babikwa (2004:72)
says “empowerment does not mean individual self assertion, upward social
mobility or increased disposable income or when psychological experience
of feeling self realized….it means....an understanding of the causes of
powerlessness, recognizing systematically oppressive forces and acting
individually and collectively to change the conditions of life” Basically,
then, it is to do with one’s participation in decisions and processes affecting
one’s life. It is a process about people, taking control over their own lives,
setting their own agendas, building self confidence, solving problems
[Kabeer, (1994) in March et al 1999:25] “Empowerment cannot be given, it
must be self generated” because such change must be believed in, initiated,
and directed by those whose interests it is meant to serve. What other

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 external forces like education can do is to provide those who need
empowerment with an enabling environment and resources which will allow
them to take greater control of their lives; determine what relations they
would want to live within and devise strategies to help them get there (Naila
Kabeer, in March, Smyth and Mukhopadhyay, 1999:.25).For detail you go to
Unit 9.

Gender Affirmative Action

Gender affirmative action is a corrective or compensatory measure for past
injustices or gaps and an accelerator for the process of equitable
development. It is an intended justice measure through deliberately
according the previously excluded or disadvantaged sex group preferential
treatment to increase the group’s representation in areas of education,
employment, business and politics among others. It entails gender
discrimination because it gives unfair, though justifiable, advantage to the
once discriminated sex group. It is therefore positive or reverse
discrimination. Gender affirmative action is meant to redress the effects of
past discriminations rather than discriminate. An example of gender
affirmative action is the practice done by most universities when these
institutions lower their entry points for female students only. For detail you
go to Unit 7.

Gender Stereotypes
Gender stereotypes are socially constructed ideas or beliefs about men and
women that are not necessarily true but taken as truth by society. They are
maintained, perpetuated and transmitted from generation to generation by
social institutions like the family, the school, the media, religion, the culture
among others. Most common gender stereotypes are based on:
● Sex, for example, males are aggressive while females are affectionate
● Personality, for example men are cheerful while women are nervous
● Age, for example, young men are rebellious while older women are
conservative
● Ethnicity, for example, Ndebele women are good home managers while
Shona women are good fieldworkers
● Class for example upper class men are playful while lower class men are
ambitious
● Occupations, for example male nurses are kind and loving while female
nurses are rude and short hearted with women in labour.
Stereotypes can be positive or negative.

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 Gender Identity
‘….it is how an individual adapts the prescribed sex role to his or her
individual identity.’
(Http: // www.gender.org.uk about gender definitions.htm page 2)

Gender Relations
These are “the range of gendered practices, such as the division of labour
and resources and the gendered ideologies such as ideas of acceptable
behaviour for men and women” (Bridge Report No. 55:18.).They are simply
the social relationships between men as a sex group and women as a sex
group. They determine what is socially accepted and what is socially
inappropriate. They work in most cases to subordinate and discriminate
against women.

Gender practical needs

These are the concrete, immediate and often essential needs/wants for
human survival. The men and women survive better in their socially
accepted roles, within their gendered power structures. Practical gender
needs include food and shelter among other things.

Gender strategic needs

These are human requirements which when met challenge and change power
relations between men and women. They are often less visible than the
practical ones and are long term, one example being access to decision-
making positions.

Gender Socialisation
Gender socialisation “refers to the means whereby social expectations
regarding gender- appropriate characteristics are conveyed to the child.
These expectations are often based on stereotyped beliefs.” It has a dual
significance for these children, that is, it provides them with models for
present behaviour and it prepares them for adult life (Dekker and Lemmer,
1993:9).

Activity 1.2
● In your own words define and explain, using examples where necessary,

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 each of the terms given above.
● Differentiate between: a) gender equity and gender equality b) gender
blindness and gender neutrality c) gender sensitivity and gender awareness
d) gender roles and sex roles e) feminism and patriarchy f) gender
affirmative action and gender empowerment g) gender mainstreaming and
gender empowerment.

1.4 Social Construction of Gender

To construct is to build or to make. The social construction of gender is the
social making of gender. Gender is constructed by society through the
process of gender socialization. The social institutions that are responsible
for gender construction are called socialisation forces like the family, the
school, the media, the language, music religion among others. The people
who carry out the socialization are socialisation agents like the parents, the
teachers, pastors, peers and many others. Some institutions like the family
are primary in the sense that they are the first that any child comes into
contact with. Murdock in Haralambos and Holborn (2004), says the family is
the child’s first window to the world and no other gender socialisation
institution rivals it in gender socialisation. Such prime gender socialisation
institutions are called primary socialisation forces, while those institutions
that the child come in contact with after primary socialisation are called
secondary socialisation forces like the school, the peer group, and others.
Both the primary and secondary forces create, reinforce, maintain and
perpetuate gender but the primary forces are the chief creators, while the
secondary forces are the chief maintainers, reinforcers and perpetuators.

The family, the school, the peer group and the mass media are going to be
discussed briefly here though other agents of gender socialisation are just as
important.

The Family
The family constructs gender through the way family members:
● interact with and treat the child
● talk to the child
● dress the child,
● give the toys and types of toys they give to the child
● assign roles and the roles they give
● accord the child benefits and opportunities and the type of benefits and
opportunities they accord

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● position the child within the family
● give the child the name and the name given and even the other pseudo
names given among other things.

The School
The school is a secondary socializing force and the teachers are the chief
socialising agents. The school operates on two levels, that is, the intentional
and official and the unintentional and none examined both of which gender
differentiated (Dekker and Lemmer 2003.)Gordon (1995) says that teachers
don’t explicitly teach gender, but gender emerges on its own in the
curriculum. What the school pupils’ eyes see, what their ears hear and what
their minds in turn believe in through:
● the school management structure
● the ways teachers talk ,organize and treat the pupils
● the portrayal of men and women in the texts and reading books
● the learning media
● the subject allocations
● the teachers’ teaching methodologies
● the teachers’ attitudes and expectations
● the extra curricula activities the sort of carrier guidance offered among other
things, discerns a gender social code on the pupils.

Therefore you see that, the exclamations ‘it’s a boy! Or it’s a girl!’ upon
delivery sets a course of action that from that moment on, influences
multiple facets of a person’s life. The answer ‘boy or girl’ carries
significance in the child’s entire life in terms of the individual’s:
● opportunities
● associations and relationships
● benefits
● societal roles and responsibilities
● value in society
● social identity
● expected behaviour

The Peer Group

On reaching school age, children begin to interact more intensively outside
the family, especially with others of their age (the peer group).Within the
peer group, the blue and pink worlds are further developed.

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Children’s games provide important cultural lessons. Lever cited in
Macionis (1989) concluded that the peer group activities of boys and girls
differ considerably, providing in each case a distinctive type of socialization.
Lever found out that boys engage in team sports that involve many roles and
complex rules, and clear objectives like scoring a goal. These games are
almost always competitive, producing winners and losers. Such activity
among boys reinforces the characteristics of masculinity, notably aggression,
competition, and remaining in control.

Girls on the other hand, tend to play games such as jump rope in small
groups, or simply sing or dance together. Such activity tends to be
spontaneous, involving few simple rules. Just as important, since these
games rarely have ‘victory’ as their ultimate goal, girls rarely oppose one
another. However, female peer groups do serve to teach the interpersonal
skills of communication and cooperation that are the basis for life within the
family.

Gilligan cited in Giddens (2004), noted that boys and girls learn to use
distinctive patterns of moral reasoning. Boys tend to reason according to
rules and principles, that ‘rightness’ is largely a matter of ‘playing by the
rules’. Girls however, understand morality more in terms of responsibility to
other human beings, so that ‘rightness’ lies in maintaining close relationships
with others. Clearly then, these distinctive patterns of moral reasoning are
encouraged by the different kinds of peer group activity common to boys
and girls.

ACTIVITY 1.2
1. Which games do young boys and girls in your community play?
11. How do the different games reinforce the traditional gender stereotypes?

The Mass Media

Mass media are channels of communication directed to vast audiences
within a society (Macionis, 1989).The mass media include both electronic
and print media such as the television, radio newspapers, and magazines. All
of these constantly present us with information of all kinds and, as a result,
have an enormous effect on our attitudes and behaviour. The mass media are
a powerful force in the socialization process. Films, magazines, literature

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and especially the television, have a significant effect on the ways we think
and act.

ACTIVITY 1.3

1. Think of a novel you have read.

11. Identify the main actors, their sex, their roles in driving the play towards
its climax.
111. Identify the gender issues in your chosen novel.
1v. How can literature be turned into a gender responsive environment?

From the above activity, we may note that beyond the inclusion of both
sexes in the mass media, the issue is how they are portrayed. In most
instances, males play the brilliant detectives, fearless explorers, skilled
surgeons, and interesting conversationalists. Males take charge; they give
orders and are portrayed as competent and capable. Females on the other
hand, are mostly portrayed as reliant on males, less competent and more
often the targets of comedy (Busby, cited in Haralambos and Horlborn,
2004). Women have also long been portrayed as sex objects important for
little other than their physical attractiveness (Macionis, 1989). These
negative stereotypes continue to persist in modern day programs, although
admittedly there is more programming with interesting and responsible
women in major roles.

ACTIVITY 1.4

Choose a current television program. Identify the gender stereotypes in the

program. Discuss giving examples, how the mass media can be turned into a
gender responsive environment.

Although gender stereotypes in the mass media have lessened recently,

commercial advertising has changed less. This is because advertising sells
the most products by conforming to widely established cultural patterns.
Haralambos and Horlborn (2004) maintain that television and magazine

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advertising presents women in the home far more often than in occupational
role. In most cases, women are found primarily in adverts for household
items such as cleaning products, foods, clothing, and domestic appliances,
while men predominate in adverts for cars, travel, banking and finance,
industrial appliances, and alcoholic beverages.

Goffman, cited in Macionis (19890, similarly concluded that advertising

conveys cultural ideals of each sex. In his study of advertising in magazines
newspapers, Goffman found that men were typically placed in photographs
to appear taller than females, implying social superiority. In addition, women
were far more likely than men to be shown lying down on sofas and beds, or,
like children, seated on the floor.

The music industry is also no exception in portraying females as sex

objects .Good examples are productions by the late ‘Dr Love’ Paul Matavire,
the ‘Lonely Lover’ Gregory Isaacs, and in some cases the late Simon
‘Chopper’ Chimbetu, Dr Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo and many others.

ACTIVITY 1.5
Compile a list of some musicians of your choice and their songs where
females are portrayed as sex objects. Suggest measures that may be adopted
in the music industry to create a gender responsive environment.

TYPES OF GENDER SOCIALISATION

There are many types of gender socialisation. Oakley in Haralambos and

Holborn (2004) talks about the types discussed below.

Canalisation
Canalisation is gender socialization through interaction with toys and
objects. Toys align children play to behavior expected of them when they
graduate to be men and women and again through interacting with these toys
children develop different sets of aptitudes and attitudes.

Verbal Appellations
These are the differential use of descriptions and labels among boys and
girls like, what a “good boy!” or “nice girl!” or reprimands like, ‘oh! Boys

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don’t cry.’ This makes the children want to keep up gender appearances as
the children internalize the label(s) and start to act and operate according to
it.

Manipulation
Manipulation is the differential attention and valuing given boys and girls
like, mothers paying attention to girls’ hair. Soon boys and girls learn that
different things are expected of them through the different treatment
accorded them and engrave a deep sense of what it is to be a boy or girl (that
is, a deep sense of their self concept.)

Imitation
Imitation is when children observe their parents or other elders within and
try to be like them. They, thus, learn how local governance operates through
observing its officers at work.

N.B However, though the argument here is that gender is PURELY a social
construct, other scholars explain gender differences as partly products of
Brain lateralization and hormonal variations, (Haralambos and Holborn
2004).

For detail on both the socio-generic and the bio-generic sources of gender
turn to Unit 2.

Activity 1.6
Critically discuss the notion that gender is a social construct. Illustrate your
response with concrete examples.

CONCLUSION

This part of the unit has tried to show that gender is a product of gender
socialization. This is largely achieved through social institutions such as the
family, the school, the peer group and the mass media. Other important
socializing agents are religion, culture and the work place. These will be
discussed in unit 5.
References

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Babikwa D, J (2004) ‘Tensions, Contradictions and Inconsistencies in
Community-Based Environmental Education Programmes: The role of
defective educational theories.’ in Southern African Journal of
Environmental Education VOL.21 (2004) pp 61-80

(Bem, 1981

Chalfant and LaBeff, 1988).

Giddens, A. ( 2004) Modernity and Self Identity Cambridge: Polity Press.

Haralambos, M. and Holborn, M. (2004) Sociology: Themes and

Perspectives. London: Collins Educational.

Kohlberg, 1966)

Macionis (1989

Walter and Manion, 1996),

Gender Equality Analysis Policy-Status of Women Canada.

Women’s Policy Office Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
(undated) Facilitators’ Guide, Gender Inclusive Analysis An overview St
John’s NF

March C, Smyth I; Mukhopadhyay M. 1999 A Guide to Gender Analysis

Frameworks. Oxfam. Oxford.

Meena, R. 1992 Gender in Southern Africa; Conceptual and Theoretical

Issues. Sapes Books, Harare.

Towards Earth Summit 2002 Social Briefing Paper number 2.

UNESCO (2004) Guidelines for Implementing, Monitoring and Evaluating

Gender Responsive EFA Plans.Van Scotter D, R (1991) Social Foundations
of Education, Prentice Hall, New Jersey
UNIT 2

THEORIES OF GENDER INEQUALITIES

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 By Winfridah Matsa

2.1Introduction
In unit 1 we defined and explained gender concepts. Unit 2 deals with
theories of gender inequalities. Theories of Gender Inequalities do not only
offers explanations of gender differences but also help to clarify differences
between gender and sex as well as gender and feminism that are often
misconstrued and confused. This unit discusses first, biological theories that
explain gender differences in terms of natural biology and innate abilities
that were dominant theories before the rise of gender and feminism. Gender
theories view and locate differences between males and females in social
constructs (created by society.) This chapter covers both macro and micro
theories of gender inequalities. Macro theories tend to be comprehensive and
include a variety of factors while micro theories centre explanations on
individual aspects like environment, biology, culture or ecology. Origins,
major expositions and applicability of each theory are discussed in this
chapter. Also activities are provided at the end of each theory to enhance
your understanding of it through interaction.

2.2 Unit Objectives

By the end of the unit, you should be able to:

1. Differentiate:
a. Gender from sex
b. Gender from feminism
2. Outline origins and major expositions of each theory
3. Evaluate the applicability of each theory especially to your country situation.
4. Explain limitations of each theory.
5. Answer questions that relate to the activities at the end of each theory.

2.3 What is a theory?

Henslin (1999) defines a theory as a general statement that explains how two
or more facts relate to one another. Haralambos and Holborn (1990:8) define
a theory as a set of ideas that claim to explain how something works: it
provides a logical explanation for why things happen the way they do. A
theory therefore defines the causal factors of a relationship and explains the
nature of that relationship.

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 2.4 What is Feminism?
According to Magezis (1996) feminism is a broad social movement which
allows different points of view that work for women’ rights. It is the
organizational movement that promotes equality for both men and women in
political, economic and social spheres of life (different Types of Feminist
Theories, 2006). Feminists focus on why and how women are oppressed in
different spheres of life and work for their liberation. Feminism can be
viewed in the following three ways:
1. As a social and political movement that fight for the rights of women and
their equality with men in all spheres of life.
2. As an ideology or philosophy or way of thinking that questions oppressive
relations of men and women using women’s perspectives.
3. A theory that questions relations of men and women and aims at
transforming them (Mannathoko in Meena, 1992).
To Henslin (1999:292) Feminism is the view that;

Biology is not destiny and therefore stratification by Gender is

wrong and should be resisted, met with strong opposition both by
men who have privileges to lose and by women who accepted
their status as normally correct.

2.4.1 Rise of Feminism

It rose as a challenge to functionalism which is conservative and views
sexual division of labour and the subordinate position of women as
functional for the stability of society. It was also a reaction to the biological
theories that viewed the position of women as natural. Feminism also
questioned the dominant views or philosophies that viewed women as les
human than males. Examples of these philosophies are:
● The female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities( Aristotle)
● A woman is an imperfect man (St Thomas Aquinas).
● The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by
man attaining to a higher eminence in whatever he takes up, than women can
attain-whether requiring deep thought, reason, imagination or merely the use
of senses and hands( Charles Darwin).
(Sandi, 1997; 1)
The feminist movement gave rise to a body of theory which attempts to
explain discrimination of women. The theory is not unified but is made of a
variety of theories that focus on women though differing in causes of
subordination and strategies of women’s liberation.

17
 2.4.2 Common aspects shared by Feminists
1. Gender is not natural but a social construct.
2. They take the position that women are unfairly treated in all spheres of life.
3. Strategies can be developed to make the world a better place for women.

2.4.3 Feminist Differences

1. Explanations of women’s oppression.
2. Areas of focus e.g. cultural stereotypes, biology, patriarchy, capitalism, class
etc.
3. Direction of change or what constitute women’s liberation.

2.5. What is Gender?

Sifuniso et al (2000:2) define gender as:
The social meanings given to being either a man or a woman in a
given society
and the expectations held as to the character, attitude and likely
behaviour of
men and women.
Gender, unlike sex which is biological, is socially constructed. Gender
influences the different behaviours, roles, responsibilities, identities and
treatment of males and females in society. Gender depends on the culture
and history of a particular society and differs from culture to culture (Refer
to unit 1).

Though gender theories do not differ much from feminist theories, they
focus on both males and females, while feminist theories centre on women.

Table 2.1 Differences between Feminist and Gender Theories

Feminist Theories Gender Theories

Are women centered Men and Women centered
Focus on experiences of women Focus on experiences of women and
men
View issues from women’s social View issues from a gender
world perspective
Seek to produce a better world for Seek to produce a better world for
women both
Are about peaceful co-existence of
Are about fighting back (revenge) males and females not fighting back

18
View males as enemies and to blame Males are viewed as victims of
for subordinate position of women socio-cultural institutions created by
society
Reject assistance by males in their Accept assistance by gender
struggles sensitive males
The question is: What about men and
Ask questions like: What about women?
women?

2.6 Both feminist and gender theories agree on the following:

* Gender differences are socially rather than biologically constructed.

* Gender differences can be deconstructed
* Both questions and challenge oppressive gender relations
* Gender differences are embedded in socio-economic structures such as:
a) Capitalism
b) Sexism or patriarchy
c) Racism
d) Social and cultural institutions

2.7 Biological Theories

Biological theories view differences between men and women as natural and
God given hence cannot be changed. Some of the theories are:

Table 2.2 Biological Theories

Theory Theorists
Brain Laterisation Theory John Nicholson
Gray J.A.
Buffery A.W.H.

Psychoanalytic Theory Sigmund Freud

Socio-biology E.O.Wilson
David Barash

Biology and Practicality G.P. Murdock

Biology: Expressive & Instrumental Talcott Parsons

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Roles

Biology has been the most widely accepted explanation for inequalities
between men and women for a long time. Scientists observe natural
differences ranging from hormones, chromosomes, brain size and genetics as
responsible for innate differences in behaviour of women and men (Giddens,
2001). Even stereotypical behaviours like men’s physical strength, superior
intelligence aggression women’s softness, care, passivity and love are all
attributed to biological determinism.

Biologists argue that the above characteristics are evident across cultures.
However, critics of biological theories reveal that the level, for example of
passivity of women and aggression of males vary depending on cultures.
They argue that, if a trait is not universal, then it cannot be natural. Giddens
(2001) notes that such theories neglect the vital role of social interaction in
shaping human behaviour.

2.7.1 Brain Laterisation and Hormonal Explanations

Scientists believe that behaviour, personality and emotional disposition are

controlled by hormones in males and females. Studies by Nicholson showed
that there is correlation between levels of testosterone and male aggression.
Girls with high levels of oestrogen exhibit ‘tomboy’ characteristics. John
Nicholson cited in Haralambos and Holborn (2004) argue that the Right and
left wings of the brain specialize in different tasks because of hormones that
have effects on the brain. The right specializes in visio-spatial abilities
while the left specializes in verbal and language skills. This is supported by
Gray and Buffery (Ibid) who pointed out that the left is dominant in girls
hence girls have verbal ability, while boys perform better in mathematical
texts. However, not all boys score higher in maths and lower in languages.
Similarly not all girls score low marks in maths and higher in language.
There are also differences in ability at infant stage where girls score higher
in all subjects. This shows that there are other factors that influence ability.

2.7.2 Psycho-analytic theory (by Sigmund Freud)

Freud in Giddens (2001) argues that gender differences at infant are centred
on the presence or absence of the penis. Having a penis is equivalent to

20
being a boy while being a girl means one lacks a penis. The boy views the
father as a rival in the affection of the mother. The boy suppresses feelings
for the mother and identifies with the father in fear of threats, discipline and
demand for autonomy by the father. Girls suffer from penis envy and
devalue the mother who does not have one. She identifies with the mother
and takes dependency and submissive attitudes. The above theory assumes
that the penis is superior to the vagina and that gender learning is
concentrated at the age of 4-5years. There are more factors and processes
that contribute to gender learning, genetic factors are not enough.

2.7.3 Sociobiology

The theory was propounded by William (1975) and applied to gender by

David Barash (Haralambos and Holborn, 2004). Barash argues that genetics
are governed by instructions to maximize the chances of passion on the
genes to future generations from breeding. Males produce more sperms
hence have interest in making many females pregnant. As a result males are
likely to be promiscuous than females. Men compete for scarce reproductive
capacities of females. Females invest more time and energy in one off-
spring and gestate the foetus in her womb. Women are sure that children are
genetically theirs hence devote time to child care. It is assumed that women
can tolerate men’s infidelity more readily than men. The theory falls short
of the realization that human behaviour is governed by the environment not
instincts. It is conservative and views human behaviour as natural,
inevitable and universal.

2.7.4 Biology and Practicality

George Murdock in Haralambos and Holborn (2004) views males and

females differences in physical strength, as leading to differences in roles.
Sexual division of labour is taken to be the most efficient way of organizing
society. He points out that a survey of 224 societies showed that men’s tasks
were those demanding physical strength eg, mining, hunting, quarrying etc.
Women were limited to less strenuous tasks like fetching water, cooking,
gathering firewood, preparing clothes. Women were tied to the home, child
bearing and care. To Murdock, physical strength and child bearing are
biological and determine roles and spheres of operation in the home and
public place. The findings from the survey of 224 societies are not enough
to conclude that sexual division of labour is biological. Societies construct

21
roles but these roles are not universal. What would be the biological
explanation in these societies which do not stick to the roles given above?

2.7.5 Biology: Expressive and Instrumental Roles (Talcott Parsons)

Though a sociologist, Parsons starting point in explaining sexual division of

labour was in biology. He argues out that childbearing and early nursing is
linked to biology. The male is achievement oriented; playing instrumental
role that has stress and anxiety. The woman’s role is expressive, that is
providing warmth, emotional support and stabilizing adult personalities.
She relieves stress by providing the breadwinner with love, consideration
and understanding. Clear sexual division of labour is for efficiency as a
social system. Expressive and instrumental roles complement each other
and promote family solidarity. Each sex is biologically suited for these
tasks. Parsons did not foresee the future of the modern industrial society
where women also perform instrumental roles that are stressful. Mothers
can have substitutes in childcare for love and affection (O’Donnell, 1992).
This is because although child bearing is biological, child rearing is not. In
a modern industrial society even the type of work has changed and sexual
division of labour is not universal.

2.7.6 Summary

Biological theories assume that nature is more significant than one’s social
experiences. They focus on sex hence are heavily criticized by sociologists
and feminists who are interested in gender instead. Sociologists and
feminists feel that the differences between men and women are socially
rather than biologically produced. Feminist theories were a reaction to the
shortfalls of biological theories. There has been a shift from biological
explanations to psychosocial patterns of socialization. Biology alone is not
enough to explain social, economic, political and religious differences
between men and women.

2.8 MACRO-THEORIES OF GENDER INEQUALITIES

2.8.1 Liberal theory

2.8.1.1 Origin

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 It is the first documented form of feminism. According to Gaidzanwa in
Meena (1992), liberal feminism dates back to the 18 th Century Britain. The
proponent, Mary Wollerstone Craft questioned views about women which
were damaging and discriminatory. The theory rose as a result of the
following;

● Industrial Revolution in Europe especially Britain that created structural

changes in the methods of production and social relations. For example,
women joined wage labour but were not treated as their male counter parts;
● Democratic political ideas in capitalist USA that emphasized ‘Equality,
Liberty and Fraternity’;
● Ideas of Scholars of Enlightment for example , Rousseau,Aristotle among
others;
● Influence of the modernization theory and Women in Development (WID)
approach to Development which emphasized borrowing of Western ideas
and did not revamp economic and social structures of society;
● Philosophy of liberalism with the belief in individual rights eg. Right to
freedom and autonomy.

The second wave of feminism was widespread in the 1950s. The 1960s
ushered in new rights in many countries that were gaining independence,
especially third world countries (Tandon, 1996). These included rights to
independence, vote, work, protection, dignity and freedom. Liberal
feminism was based on the belief that women possess reason and as such are
entitled to full human rights and are free to choose their role in life, explore
their potential and compete with men.

2.8.1.2 Major Exposition

Giddens (2001:692) defines liberal theory as a:

Feminist theory that believes gender inequality is produced by reduced

access for women and girls to civil rights and allocation of social resources
such as education and employment.

Liberal feminists believe:-

● In individual rights for women.

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● That women’s discrimination is based on prejudice, sexism and socialization
(Magezis, 1996).
● Those women have mental capacities as their male counterparts and should
be given the same opportunities in political, economic and social spheres.
● Those women are constrained by social legal and cultural institutions.
● That there should be fairness, justice, equal opportunities and equal
participation in the management of society.
● That attitudes, stereotypes and biases against females constrain women
● Confinement of women to the private sphere and dependency on men .
disadvantage women

2.8.1.3 Solutions

Liberals propose the following as solutions to women’s problems:

● Give women equal rights, opportunities to jobs, education to challenge
directly the ideology of patriarchy.
● Proportional representation and equal access of males and females in
education, employment, health, resources, political organs, training etc.
● Sought women’s liberation through legal reforms.
● Advocate for gender mainstreaming in education and training.
● Education is viewed as a liberating force hence both boys and girls should be
educated.
● Focus on changing attitudes, stereotypes and biases in language, textbooks
and the media.
● Call for diversification of the curriculum.
● Call for catering for special needs of girls to improve their social status, self
esteem and confidence.
● Advocate for women’s participation in the public sphere.
● Reorient women into crucial decision making positions of executives,
directors, ministers, presidency and so on..
● Empower women through education, training, workshops and projects.
● End discrimination of build positive role models for women and girls.

2.8.1.4 Applicability of the Liberal Theory

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 Achievements

In SADC countries, liberal feminists are responsible for many important

Acts of legislation that have greatly improved the situation of women. In
Zimbabwe, these include reform in welfare, education and health.

Education

In Zimbabwe, the 1980 Education act declared Education for all despite
class, gender religion, and ethnicity. The liberals have fought for a gender
sensitive curriculum and removal of stereotypes in texts, and any teaching
material. This has seen subjects and sports in the school curriculum being
open for both boys and girls. There have been changes in stereotypical
language in the school e.g. :

Headmaster - School Head

Choirmaster - Choir Director
Sportsmaster - Sports Director
Senior Master/mistress – Senior Teachers.

Liberals have called for gender sensitive teaching methods to afford pupils
equal treatment. There has been proportional representation in enrolments
of males and females at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
Proportional representative has also been applied in promotion of women to
positions of authority eg. School heads, Education officers etc. There has
also been equal access to bursaries and scholarships.

Workplaces

In Britain equal pay and sex discrimination acts came into being in the
1970s. In Zimbabwe the 1985 Labour Relations Act was introduced. It had
the following provisions:-

● Equal pay for males and females;

● Minimum wages for everyone
● Equal treatment and access to male dominated occupations.
● Maternity leave benefits and recently paternity leave
● No discrimination on the grounds of sex, not even on adverts in the media.
● Access to top positions of executives, directors and ministers.

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 Politics

The SADC declaration on gender led to the consideration of women

participation in politics. This led to the introduction of the quota system
where one third of parliamentarians have to be women. Women now have
access to top positions and participate in electoral and legal reform
processes.

Legal sphere

Internationally equal rights for men and women were included in the United
Nations (UN) Charter of 1947. Trafficking in human beings who were
mostly females was stopped in 1948. In Zimbabwe Acts were passed to
protect and improve the social status of women, for example:

● Legal Age of majority Act (1982) which lifted women from a state of being
perpetual minors. Women above 18years are now viewed as adults who can
consent on their own, make contracts and own property like land, cattle,
bank accounts houses among others.;
● Matrimonial causes Act which allows sharing of property at death or
divorce.
● Sexual offences Act that protects both males and females from sexual
harassment.
● There has also been conscientisation of women on marriage Acts and their
provisions. Pension’s Acts have been amended also. These and many
unmentioned Acts including the recent domestic Act are all in a bid to bring
gender equality.

For a detailed treatment of each of these acts refer to Unit 9 of this module.

2.8.1.5 Limitations of the Theory.

The liberal Theory is mainly criticized by socialist and radical feminists who
argue that liberals:

● .Do not addresses underlying causes of women’s oppression (Bryson, 1992).

● .Ignore power relations (structural inequalities) prevailing in society

26
● .Do not goes deeper into explaining causes of women’s subordination hence
cannot offer solutions for an unknown cause.
● Do not offer strategy to counter traditional norms and values that constrain
women.
● Is reformist in nature moving in a gradual process to influence the
government to pass laws (Magezis, 1996). No major structural changes are
made in the socio-economic arrangement of the society.
● View women as a homogeneous category ignoring class, race and ethnicity.
● Its calls for access to education, health, employment, legal instruments leave
out lower class women.
● It’s blending well with the WID approach to development; its welfare and
anti-poverty approaches compromise women rights, access and control of
resources.

Activity 2.1

Discussion Questions.

a) What are the characteristics of liberalism as an ideology?

b) After a close reflection of the solutions offered by liberal feminists, what
would you consider to be their weaknesses?
c) To what extent have the following been effective in redressing gender
imbalances between males and females?

legal instruments
access to Education

d) In view of the political changes that have taken place in your country,
complete the table below.

POSITIONS MALES FEMALES % FEMALES

Presidency
Ministers
Provincial.
Governors
Parliamentarians
Chiefs

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 2.8.2 Marxist- Feminist Theory

2.8.2.1 Origin

Marxist Feminists are a variety of scholars who were applying the Marxist
theory of economic determinism in explaining the oppression of women.
These were drawing from Karl Max and Fredrick Engels’ writings, for
example: ‘The origin of the family, private property and the State.
(O’Donnell 1992). The theory rose in the 1970s owing to the Women and
Development (WAD) approach to development and as a critic of the liberal
feminist theory, modernization theory and Women in development approach.

Women and Development (WAD) approach had been influenced by the

critics of the modernization theory, which were dependency theorists and
Under-development scholars of the Third World especially Latin America.
These were the likes of Walter Rodney, Dos Antos and Gunder Frank. The
proponents of the Marxist Feminists are Sue Sharpe, Juliet Mitchel and
Marynard among others.

2.8.2.2 Marxist Terms

Economic Base- It consists of the means of production including land,

capital, labour and time.
Forces of production - which include tools/implements or technology.
Relations of production-which define who owns, controls, dominates, profits
as well as who has power.
The ownership of the means of production and productive forces determine
the relations of production.
Superstructure-Is made of ideologies that monitor, maintain, reproduce and
legitimize the status quo (Relations of production at the base). The
ideologies are;

- patriarchy
- capitalism
- cultural beliefs
- religion
- State institutions e.g. schools, legislation and repressive state apparatus.

28
 Economic determinism – states that ownership of the economy greatly
determines how the two classes (owners and non-owners of the means of
production) relate in a capitalist system.
Subordinate and dominant class-Those who own the means of production
are the dominant class while those who do not own them constitute the
subordinate class.

Exploitation and Oppression-Those who do not own the means of

production are exploited of their labour by being given low wages. The
powerful owning class oppresses the subordinate class.

2.8.2.3 Marxist –Feminist Expositions

● Gender inequalities are rooted in capitalism and its ownership of private

property (Bryson, 1992).
● They challenge attempt to isolate gender from social class.
● Men are powerful because they own the means of production (dominant
class)
● Women do not own the means of production hence are a subordinate class
that is oppressed, exploited just like the proletariats.
● The base determines relations between men and women.
● Women’s position in a capitalist society is economically determined
● Capitalism divides work into private (home) and public sphere (workplace).
● Capitalism values men’s labour and devalue that of women by giving low
wages.
● Women enter wage labour from a subordinate position.
● Women are a reserve army of labour, that is, they can be recruited any time
to replace males at a low cost.

Sharpe in O’Donnell (1992; 172) argues that;

Employers …. Frequently regard women as mere temporary

labour, and consider that they should be thought lucky to have
the opportunity to earn some money for themselves. They can be
used as surplus labour force, to be employed or laid off at will.

● Men are viewed as bread winners’ hence higher wages while women are
viewed as appendages of men (Bryson, 1992).
● Women suffer double exploitation, for example, they produce in factories
and produce future labourers at no cost.

29
● Domestic work in the private sphere is not remunerated.
● Women are alienated (separated) from their production, reproduction and
sexuality. This means women do not own and control what they produce in
the public sphere, at home and even that which relates to their sexuality
(children and their bodies).
● Mitchel in O’ Donnell ( ibid.) argues that oppression in the family produces:

…A tendency to small-mindedness, petty, jealousy, irrational

emotionally and random violence, dependency competitive
selfishness, possessiveness, passivity, a lack of vision and
conservativism….
● These characteristics are embedded in women’s objective conditions and a
sexist society.
● Women serve the interest of capitalism through the management of the
family. They provide productive, psychological and social needs.

2.8.2.4 Solutions
Marxist-Feminists propose the following as some of the solutions to
women’s problems;
● Marxist Feminists stress the need to overthrow capitalist economic system.
They call for a socialist Revolution that would change the structure and
ownership of the means of production.
● There must be an ideological change first in the consciousness of both sexes.
(Pilcher and Whelehan,2004)
● Females should free themselves from dependence and traditional gender
roles that confine them to the private sphere.
● Participation of women in the public sphere is key to their liberation.
● Men and women should struggle against capitalist oppressors.
● Class and gender struggles should take place at the same time.
● Abolition of private property and setting up of a communally owned means
of production in a communist society.
● Household work should be paid for.

2.8.2.5 Applicability of the Marxist-Feminist Theory.

In SADC countries as patriarchal societies, men own private property more

than women e.g. land, capital, houses, machinery and labour. Most of the
productive forces are registered on male names. As a result men become

30
 powerful, oppress and dominate women. The one who owns decides and
has final judgement over resources. Domestic work in the home is either not
paid for or low wages are given to maids. Women employed in the public
sphere mostly do domestic work which has been transferred from the private
sphere to the public sphere for example nursing (caring), teaching
(socializing), and catering (servicing) and being secretaries for bosses who
are mostly males. Women are employed in large numbers in export
processing as well as textile industries for low wages. These careers are
characterized by low wages. The children produced belong to the father in a
traditional family and what the woman produces from her labour is
controlled by the husband. Patriarchy, culture and religion are ideologies
that legitimate inequalities making them appear normal, natural and
unchangeable. State institutions e.g. education, reproduces patriarchal
values. Ownership of the means of production does determine one’s
(women’s) position and power in a capitalist society. Schools in a capitalist
society re-enforce social inequalities by producing a workforce divided by
class. Schools in Zimbabwe, for example, can be classified into private,
former group A, former group B, mission schools and what used to be called
upper-tops. Products from these schools still exhibit glaring class and gender
differences.

2.8.2.6 Limitations
Marxist-Feminist criticism is based on the following:
● Society has changed from the classes and conditions observed by Karl Marx
and Fredrick Engels. Some women these days own private property.
● Some SADC countries have come up with national gender policies and legal
instruments that enable women to access property, capital, loans and land.
● Entry into wage labour by women from the 18th Century to today does not
prove to be key to their liberation. It has instead increased women’s labour
burdens.
● Experiences in Socialist countries, for example, Soviet Union, Cuba, China
and the former Eastern Block, did not show that women’s positions in these
societies were any better. These societies are still male dominated with
powerful posts in male hands.
● In countries like Zimbabwe, most women find themselves in the informal
sector with low unreliable income. They are not part of the proletariat
working in public places. The majority of women are in rural areas. The
theory did not look at majority of women in Third World countries.

31
● Marxist- feminists are gender blind. They failed to focus on power relations
of males and females as independent from social class. They did not explain
why men exploit and oppress women even in socialist societies.
● They also fail to explain subordinate position of women before the advent of
Capitalism.
● Marxist-Feminists ignore patriarchy and male control of women’s sexuality,
culture, violence, race and ethnicity.
● The economic factor is not enough to explain gender inequalities; other
sources of inequalities are ignored.

ACTIVITY 2. 2

Discuss men and women ownership of the means of production and the
productive forces in your country..
How do the above elements of the Superstructure maintain male dominance
and legitimize the ownership of the means of production in your country?
Explain giving examples.

2.8.3 Radical theory

2.8.3.1 Origin

Radical feminism is a movement that rose in the 1960s – 80s as a breakaway

of Marxists who were frustrated by the inability to apply social class in
analyzing gender oppression. It also emerged as a reaction to the liberal
theory (Meena, 1992: Bryson, 1992). Its impetus came from women’s
experiences in the Civil Rights, anti war, new-left and student movements in
North America, Europe and Australia. The first radical group was
influenced by the Maoist ideas and the need to develop political strategies
for women’s liberation. Their slogan was the ‘Personal is political’ (Bryson,
1992) meaning that no aspect of life lacked a political dimension (power
relations). Political struggles can take many new forms. It was important to
break the silence through consciousness raising. The theory is radical in
nature, that is it is violent, fast, uncompromising and strongly oppose
patriarchal systems. Some of the proponents are Kate Millet, Shulamith

32
 Firestone and Ortner. These demand radical transformation of oppressive
gender relations. Mannathoko in Meena (1192:75) cites that radicals:

… Launched a wholesale onslaught against male dominated society and

consider men as the enemy.

2.8.3.2 Major Expositions

Radical Feminists have come up with the following factors as explanations

of gender inequalities:

1. Patriarchy;
2. Gender Socialisation;
3. biology (sexuality)

2.8.3.2.1 Patriarchy

According to Bazili (1991:9)

Patriarchy is an ideology of male supremacy that results from

social construction of gender which in turn justifies the social,
economic and political distinction between men and women.

Walby in Smelser (1994:320) defines patriarchy

As a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate
oppression and exploit women.

Patriarchy stretches back to the time of creation in Genesis, where a woman

was made from Adam’s rib. (Acker, 1987) argues that it appears as if the
women came as an after thought.

Genesis 3 v16
…Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
(The Holy Bible; King James
Version, 2007)
Genesis 3 V18

It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for
him.

33
 (ibid.)
The word patriarchy is derived from the Greek word patriarchs meaning
‘head, of the tribe. Patriarchy is viewed as universal, oldest and worst kind
of oppression in the world. (Byrson, 1992; Different Types of Feminist
Theories, 2006). It cuts across time, cultures, races, classes and ethnicities.
It is a belief in society dominated and ruled by men. It is viewed as natural,
universal, unchangeable and unquestionable. (For a broader definition, refer
to Unit 1).

To radicals like Kate Millet politics means power and men derive their
power from the patriarchal system that supports and favour males.
Patriarchy as an ideology is sustained by early socialization in the family,
secondary socialization in schools, churches and workplaces. It also rests
upon the economic exploitation and use of threat and force (Haralambos and
Holborn, 2004). Patriarchy benefits from the oppression of women. Women
as a group have interests opposed to those of men. These interests unite
them into sisterhood across classes and cultures. Male power is not confined
to the public worlds of political and paid employment but extends into
private life (sphere).

2.8.3.2.2 Gender Socialization

Gender inequalities are learnt through primary socialization and reinforced

later by every other institution, for example, School, media, community,
church among others. In a patriarchal society children are socialized to be
different. Being male or female is emphasized. Oakley in Haralambos and
Holborn (2004) points out that this is done through processes like
manipulation, canalization, verbal appellations and exposure to different
activities. (See unit 1).

2.8.3.2.3 Biology/Sexuality

Subordination of women has origins in biology, the fact that women give
birth (Firestone in Marcus and Ducklin, 1998). The core of power and
female domination is male control of female’s roles in reproduction and
child rearing (Firestone in O’Donnell 1992). Women become dependent on
men for material necessities of life and protection especially in the nuclear
family. Men control women’s production, reproduction, child rearing and
sexuality.

34
 It is for this reason that other radicals like Kate Millet view the family as a
central site of women’s oppression. Ortner in Haralambos and Holborn
(2004) cites that women are viewed as closer to biology (nature) while men
are closer to culture (social construct). This has led to the belief that what
relates to women cannot be changed while that, which relates to males can
be changed. Biology is seen as the inevitable form of sexual division of
labour. Rape and violence against women is used by males to secure and
maintain power. The New York Restocking Manifesto of 1969 Read:-

Women are an oppressed class. Our oppression is total, affecting

every facet of our lives. We are exploited as sex objects, breeder,
domestic servants and cheap labour. We are considered inferior
beings whose only purpose is to enhance men’s lives…
(Bryson,1992:183-184).

2.8.3.3. Solutions
Radicals prescribe the following solutions for the liberation of women:
● Women are to struggle on their own for their own liberation against their
oppressors (males). This is evidenced by the quotation…Radicals reject
assistance by males because men are viewed as enemies of the liberation.
They are blamed for being responsible for all the other problems of women,
for example, Conflict, war, destruction of the environment, and abuse. A war
should be raged against men.
● Reject gender roles and call for childcare facilities.
● Radicals are of the view that gender differences can be reduced by taking
desirable characteristics of males and females because these are socially
constructed.
● However, cultural feminists (Extremists) celebrate feminine characteristics
like interdependence and sharing:

…It is better to be feminine than to be masculine. Thus women

should not try to be like men. (Tong in Haralambos and Holborn,
2004:103).

(Refer to micro theories, Unit 2).

● Call for total restructuring of society. To them doing away with

male domination is a means of eliminating women’s oppression.
● Demand women’s empowerment in education, politics and
sexuality.

35
● Focus on violence against women, for example, rape, sexual harassment,
incest, pornography and domestic violence.
● Challenge also men’s control and monopoly over the production and use of
knowledge, for example, in the mass media.

2.8.3.4 Applicability of the Radical Feminist Theory

Unlike the liberals who fight for equal educational opportunities, radicals
have challenged both the quality and quantity of education offered to
women. Their ideas have significantly influenced changes in the curriculum
that has resulted in the eliminating of gender stereotyping that impact
negatively on women’s academic achievement. This gender stereotyping is
evident in subjects as sciences, maths, commercials and social studies that
were male dominated. These have been made available to women. Women
are also empowered health wise e.g. use of birth control measures of their
choices, use of protection (female condom), There are women’s pressure
groups, for example, Women’s Action Group (WAG), Affirmative Action
Group (AAG) and Women Of Zimbabwe Arise(WOZA) fight for rights of
women and girls. Other women facilities include the Girl Child Network,
scholarships for girl children and victim friendly courts for abused children.
The passing of the sexual offences Act, HIV AIDS Act, Domestic Violence
Act and stiffer penalties for rape perpetrators are all efforts of radical
feminists. Organizations like Msasa Project have protected women
experiencing gender domestic violence of any kind in Zimbabwe. A shelter
for such women was set up in Harare. Single sex schools, Women’s
University and Women’s Institute of Governance are all products of radical
feminists. Women have been made to access legal instruments that allow
them to abort under special circumstances like rape, incest, mental health or
anything that endangers the woman’s health. Radical feminists have also
influenced the setting up of childcare institutions, and introduction of new
reproductive technologies like donation of sperms, artificial insemination,
surrogate motherhood and making choices of family planning methods. All
these enable women to control their bodies.

2.8.3.5 Limitations
The following can be cited as limitations of the Radical Feminist Theory:
● It is criticized as Western, for example, in Africa, abortion is male dominated
(males decide) and it touches religious and moral issues. As a result, the
theory is heavily criticized and opposed.

36
● It emphasizes differences between men and women making peaceful co-
existence and co-operation impossible.
● It is hostile towards the man who is also victims of socialization.
● Separatists and their rejection of marriage and relationships with males can
lead to the end of the human race.
● Views women as passive victims and assumes that all women are good and
all males are bad.
● That all males are able to oppress all women, ignoring the fact that some
men are oppressed by women or by both
● The theory fails to explain the origins of patriarchy and its power.
● It leaves out other factors like race, class and ethnicity.

ACTIVITY 2.3

1. Discuss how biology is a constraint to men and women’s equality in the

following areas with reference to your country
education
workplace
2 What reproductive changes have taken place in your country as a result of
radical theorists’ influence?

3 How does patriarchy interfere with women’s participation in

a) Politics
b) Decision making in the home
c) Community

2.8.4 Socialist Feminist Theory

Socialist Feminism is not a theory on its own, but a critique of the Marxist
and radical feminist theories. Bryson (1992:234) argues that:

It refers to recent attempts to synthesize the insights of Marxists

and radical feminism to build a new theory combining the best of
both. It rose in the 1960s.

Some of the proponents are Heidi, Jaggar and Ann Ferguson. The socialist-
Feminists differ from Marxist- Feminists in that their explanation for gender

37
 inequalities extend from capitalism to patriarchy. Unlike Marxists, they
looked at women in both the public and the private spheres. Marxists
focused more at the workplace.

2.8.4.1 Major Expositions

● The modern society is viewed as both capitalist and patriarchal. Socialist-

feminists believe that the subordination of women is rooted in the two evils
of capitalism and patriarchy:
● The theory is dualistic in nature with two evils mutually reinforcing.
● Sometimes the two systems conflict – for example,. Capitalist demand for
labour is opposed by patriarchal demand for personal services in the home.
However, both capitalist and patriarchal men benefit from the above
arrangement that subordinate women.
● Marxists are criticized for focusing only on capital ignoring relations of men
and women.
● To socialist feminists, women’s subordinates go beyond capitalism to
patriarchy that pre-dates capitalism.
● Patriarchy is based on men’s control over women’s labour and this is part of
the productive process.
● Capitalism is based on the capitalist control of labour in the productive
process.
● Ferguson feels that patriarchy is semi-autonomous, while Young views
patriarchy and capitalism as not dual but unified systems (Bryson, 1992).
● To support the above, Jaggar says the two are inseparable. For both,
oppression of women touches issues of reproduction and production, for
example, patriarchy controls reproduction of women and their labour in the
production process. Patriarchy benefits from the control of the produce from
reproduction (children) and women’s labour (products). Capitalism like
patriarchy benefits from reproduction of future workers and produce from
women’s labour.
● Vogel says maintenance and production of the working class are essential
requirements of capitalism. Hence, the two systems of domination are
‘inextricably entangled’ (Bryson, 1992:247).
● Socialist- feminist argue that entry into wage labour by women cannot be
key to their liberation as Marxists suggested.
● Women entered wage labour during the industrial revolutions in Europe, for
example, Britain (1800) France (1830), Germany (1850) but the position of
women did not change in homes and workplace. Again, during world wars

38
 (WWI 1914- 1918) and (WW II 1939-1945) women participated in
industries but this did not usher the fruits they expected.
● Class analysis by Marxists is not enough. They ignore patriarchy and over
estimate the power of capital.
● Socialist Feminists focus on women’s question and make demands as both
workers and women.
● Men have vested interest in the subordination of women because they
benefit socially and materially.
● Women produce, reproduce, socialize and service families at no cost.
Women reproduce workers for capitalists. They also reproduce heirs as well
as workers for their husbands.
● Education is seen as reproducing both class and gender inequalities.
(Stromquist1989; Sanderson, 1988). Schools through socialization reproduce
capitalists and patriarchal values, habits of passivity, conformity among girls
as well as children from lower class background.
● Capitalism and patriarchy legitimizes class and gender inequalities.
● Capitalism and patriarchy work hand in hand in the exploitation of women.
Male supremacy is embedded in economic structures. These are
strengthened by patriarchal relations.

2.8.4.2 Solutions
The following are solutions suggested by Socialist- Feminists:
● A revolution that challenges the two ideologies leading to uprooting of both
capitalism and patriarchy;
● Women struggle should focus on conditions of production, reproduction,
reproductive rights, sexuality, and new forms of family organization.
● Women should be united by their experiences, disputes, race, class, ethnicity
or religion.
● All class and cultural forces of oppression should be ended in order to
liberate women.
● Women should work side by side with men.

2.8.4.3 Applicability of the Socialist- Feminist Theory

The Socialist- Feminist Theory has led to Gender and Development (GAD)
Approach where men and women work side by side with men in political,
economic and social development. (Refer to Unit 3). It has made
development agencies or governments to focus on inequalities in the private
and public spheres. Economic ownership, reproduction, family organization
and reproductive rights are now areas of focus in some SADC countries.

39
 This has led to introduction of laws that enable women to access property,
health care, and reproductive rights and to choose marriage types (forms of
family organization). Some governments in the SADC like Zimbabwe have
crafted national gender policies for development. These policies look at
men and women’s access to land, education and training, housing, water,
health, political decision making, natural resources. The policies encourage
participation of women and men in al spheres of life.

2.8.4.4 Limitations
The following have been identified as weaknesses of the Socialist- Feminist
Theory:
● It focuses on working middle class women leaving out peasants.
● Socialist- Feminists do not explain the origins of patriarchy and give no
suggestions of how it can be uprooted.
● Socialist- Feminists do not offer a theory of their own but only critique
existing theories.
● Patriarchy can work in other modes of production besides capitalism, for
example, pre-capitalist and socialist modes of production.
● Patriarchy can be strengthened and supported by other ideologies beside
capitalism, for example, culture, religion and socialization.

Activity 2.4

Discuss the similarities between patriarchy and capitalism. Enter these in

the table below:-

PATRIARCHY CAPITALISM
a)leads to gender inequalities Leads to gender inequalities
b)supports the male supremacy Supports male supremacy
c)
d)
e)

Show how patriarchy subordinates women in the following institutions:-

Home
School

40
 Workplace
Church.

Third World Countries Political Economy Approach (Post Modernism)

Origins
It is important for us to note that the traditional feminist theories (liberal,
Marxist, radical and socialist feminist) focused on the concerns of middle
class women. They also viewed women as a homogeneous group.
Gaidzanwa in Meena (1992) refer to these theories as ‘bourgeoisie theories’.
Women’s concerns did not transcend class and race. Wollenstone craft’s
liberal feminism belonged to the bourgeoisie class concerned with
bourgeoisie women. Women of the other creeds, religion, age, class and
ethnicity were excluded.

The proponents of third world economy approach are third world feminists
who offer a critique of the (traditional dominant) feminist theories. Third
world political approach is part of post modernist theories. Post modernism
is a reaction to modernist theories’ failure to account for different changes in
society. Post modernists argue that:

1. It is not possible to study society and develop unified conclusions.

2. Human behavior is characterized by heterogeneity rather than homogeneity
3. Positivism and generalizations are not accurate in human behavior

The Third World Political approach looks at the following factors as

explanations for the subordinate position of women especially in Third
World Countries:
● Location on the Globe ( first, second and third world)
● International/ Global economy
● History of colonization
● Race
● Class
● Patriarchy
● Ethnicity
● Religion
● Age

41
● Gender among others.

Major Tenants
● The theory focuses on the 3rd world minorities of women previously ignored.
These are unrepresented black, rural, disabled, and younger and lower class
women among others.
● Women are viewed as fragmented or heterogeneous because of ethnicity,
race, religion, age, disability, class, nationality, marital status, history and
multiple identities.
● As a result women do not have shared experiences as suggested by
traditional feminist theories. Marcus and Duckling (1998:59) argues that
social theory can not offer general and inclusive views of the social world.
● A feminist theory is not possible especially in 3 rd world countries like Africa
where women are divided by a lot of factors listed above.
● Subordination of 3rd world women should be situated in their histories and
their location within neo-colonial nations.
● It looks at multicultural or global feminism where all other differences are
recognized not just gender.
● It also looks at intersection of gender with race, class and issues of
colonization and exploitation of women in the developing world
● According to the 3rd world feminist writers, women in the 3rd world countries
are subordinated in many ways: they are subordinated and oppressed as:
1. Third World women
The relationship that exists between the first worlds (developed industrial
nations) and the 3rd world (underdeveloped nations) is in such away that the
first world exploits third world resources and labour. The periphery
(satellites that is third world countries supply the metropolis (core), the first
world with resources and labour (Gunder Frank and Dos Santos in Anderson
(1995). Zimbabwe is a third world country and women are subordinated as
third world women.

2. Globalization of Economy
Third world economies, Zimbabwe included are incorporated into capitalist
economies of the developed world. Transnational capitalists who are mostly
the patriarchs control world economy through trade. A system of dependency
of 3rd world countries on the economies of the first world has been created.
There is dependency ‘….when the first society (economy is organized by
persons in the foreign society so as to benefit primarily the foreign economy
(Sanderson, 1995:217). Developed nations extracted raw materials from
third world countries, exported them to be manufactured in Europe and

42
brought back as finished goods expensive to the Africans. The third world
people become depended on the west for manufactured goods, technology
and technological know how. New dependency arose after the Second World
War that is financial dependency with multinational corporations that
invested in 3 rd world countries. Only a third is reinvested. The profits are
repatriated. Peripheral market conditions of the developed nations dictate the
terms of trade (Dos Santos in Sanderson 1995). Zimbabwean women are
part of this dependency and exploitation by the first world’s multinational
companies and trade.

3. Class
Women in a capitalist global economy like men are part of the proletariats.
Their labour is exploited for low wages. In this global oppression, peasants
farmers and urban workers are the most exploited. Women are the producers
of raw materials in the periphery but are alienated from what they produce.
They are exploited by both global capitalists and capitalist elites in their
nations. In Zimbabwe women belong to a lower class that has no power or
control of the means of production.

4. Race
Women especially in third world Africa Zimbabwe included are further
subordinated as a black race. White women in the first world are the
capitalists and consumers of what the black race produces. The voices of the
black women are not heard. The concerns of the traditional (modernist)
feminist theories did not take into account issues of race. White women and
black women do not have same experiences hence cannot speak with one
voice. Black women are subordinated by both white males and females of
the first and 3rd world. The situation of women during the colonial and post
colonial has not changed much in relation to racial issues in most African
countries.

5. Gender
Women in third world countries are also subordinated and exploited as
women by males. In patriarchal societies where males dominate, ownership
of property, movable and immovable is largely in the hands of males. Such
resources are land, livestock, cars, tractors, capital, and homesteads among
others. Studies conducted by Women and Law in Zimbabwe (2000) reveal
that women have access to the resources but do not have control over them.
Women are exploited as labourers and child bearers. Most African cultures
legitimize this male dominance.

43
6. By other women
Women are further subordinated by other women depending on age, position
of power and relationships (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2003)
Generally, elderly women subordinate younger women. They dictate to them
and subject them to initiation ceremonies and cultural norms and values that
trap younger women in their subordination. Other women assume cultural
and patriarchal power that enables them to oppress other women. Examples
of such women are mothers in law and sisters in law. Senior women in
polygamous and non polygamous families enjoy a higher status as
grandmothers, sisters and sisters in law (gogo, sisi, maiguru and tete).They
make sure their commands are carried by junior women. They impart to
them traditions and norms that support male dominance and female
subordination. In pre-colonial Zimbabwe, Lozikheyi Dlodlo, Lobengula’s
senior wife kept younger women under her Nabuiza, the first wife of the
Mutapa in the seventeenth century lived in the palace and served by personal
servants like (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2003).

6. Ethnicity
Ethnicity like race is a serious factor in issues of subordination, the
world over. Different ethnic groups have different statuses in their
countries. A woman who belongs to the lowest ethnic group is the
most subordinated. She is subordinated by males and females of other
superior ethnic groups and her husband. She is looked down upon for
ethnicity and gender. For example a Nguni woman would always be
the first wife during the reign of Mzilikazi and Lobengula(Ndlovu-
Gatsheni,2003).Her firstborn son would always be an heir even if the
husband had many wives and sons before her .Wives from royal
families did not work in the fields but had other women working for
them while they participated in public affairs

8. As rural women
The majority of women in third world countries are in rural areas. These
make the majority of illiterate women who lack access to information,
technology, technological know-how, training, health etc (Welshenman, et
al, 1997 and McFadden, 1992).Most such women do not own the means of
production e.g. land , machinery and capital despite changes in legal
instruments. Historically, these women were affected by colonial

44
 peasantization. They made up 90% of agricultural workers ( ). However,
they had no access to and control of land, seeds, credit facilities etc. These
were registered in male names. Males took produce of single crops like
maize, cotton, palms and tobacco to marketing boards (Marcus and Dunklin
1998) Money became a medium of exchange in the colonial era, but women
were not part of that money economy. Women produced for commercial
purposes but only controlled crops that had to do with subsistence
(consumption)

9. Religion
Almost all religions in the world subordinate women. In an Islamic religion,
a devout Muslim would stop praying when a strange women or a donkey
appears (Acker, 1997). A prayer by devout Jewish reads; I thank God that I
am a Jew and not a gentile, am a man and not a woman.

In Christianity, it is believed that a woman was not created from the dust of
the earth but from Adam’s independent person. Adam was given dominion
over creation and a man is the head of the family as Christ is head of the
church. In traditional religion women do not speak to the ancestral spirit
(midzimu) but can talk to stray spirits (mashavi). Ancestral spirits from the
mother’s side are not important as those of the father’s side. Women do not
make important religious decisions in the families. They cannot appease
angry ancestral spirits. Fathers, brothers or brother’s children do this

Applicability of the Theory

● Indeed Third World women, like men are trapped in the global capitalist
system of dependency and exploitation.
● Women like men are producers but do not benefit from what they produce.
They are exploited as a class of workers and women.
● The condition of women especially the black race is worse than that of other
races. During the colonial period, most whites had black women as their
maids and nannies’. This has not changed much in the post colonial period.
● In patriarchal societies, majority of women do not own immovable property
like houses and land for homesteads especially in rural areas. They also do
not own movable properties like cars, scotch carts, cattle especially the
married ones.
● Women are further subordinated by other women for example, in Shona and
Ndebele cultures of Zimbabwe a muroora/ Umalukazana/wife has to take

45
 without questioning instructions from the husband’s mother
(vamwene/umamazala) and from the husband’s sister (vatete/ubabakazi).
These decide on muroora/umalukazana’s fate in marriage and the custody of
children.
● Elderly women in these cultures dictate and subject younger women to
initiation ceremonies and cultural norms that trap younger women in their
subordination. For example:
1. Women should be quite whatever happens in her marriage she should allow
the husband to access what he paid bride price (lobola) for (sexuality) at
whatever cost and circumstances.
2. A women should endure (persevere) in marriage to avoid breaking up of the
marriage (kuputsa imba yake/ ukudiliza umuzi). In Zimbabwe, for example,
most rural women are engaged in agriculture. They produce for both
subsistence and commercial agriculture. However, few women have access
to credit facilities, technology, technological know how and marketing
facilities. Culture and patriarchy continue to maintain the status quo despite
introduction of legal instruments and policies on access to resources and
opportunities

Limitations
1. Third world political approach tends to focus on capitalism and post
colonialism.
2. It does not focus on patriarchal and cultural constraints before capitalism.
3. It ignores biological or reproductive constraints.
4. It divides women weakening their struggles because of emphasis of women
diversity.
5. Argue that homogenizing women is colonizing women denying them their
histories, cultures, identities and nationalities.

Activity 2.5
Explain, giving examples, how each of the following factors subordinate
women in your country?

* Religion, Christianity and Traditional religion

* Rural Environment
* Other women
* Class
* Ethnicity

46
Why is it difficult for third world women to develop a unified feminist
theory?

Micro-Theories of gender inequalities

Post modernism has seen a shift from large scale theories with universal
explanations of gender relations, that is, patriarchy, capitalism, socialism and
biology to issues of age, class, race, and ethnicity among others.

Black Feminism

The Third world political approach focuses on heterogeneity of women. It is

a theory of third world women by third world women dissatisfied with other
types of feminisms. Black feminism looks at women affected by race
especially the black women in the western world who are excluded by macro
theories. These are black women who are in industrialized nations as a result
of slavery, employment, studies, and refugee status.

Black feminists argue that versions of other feminists do not apply equally to
white and non-white women. Black women have particular problems of
segregation or exclusion in civil rights movements in industrialized nations.
Race is viewed as the most/only relevant label for identification.
Womanhood is less than race. As a result black women have not been central
in women’s liberation movement .Where characteristics of women are
measured, those of white women are used as a yardstick (Hooks in Giddens,
2001)

Solutions

Theories of feminism should take into account issues of racism.

Concentration should not be on experiences and ideas of white women.

Applicability
Black women, the world over, are subordinated by the race issue. However,
their situation is worse in the western world. Their voices are unheard
because of race, class and gender.

Activity 2.6

47
 Describe giving examples, the problems of Black women living in
developed countries.

Eco-feminism

Eco-feminism was propounded by the likes of Vandana Shiva, Susan Griffin

and Carolyn Merchant. It emerged in western scholarship in the 1970s as a
result of realization of connection between women, human rights and the
exploitation of nature.

● Eco-feminists believe that male domination is harmful to both women and

environment earth.
● Men desire to control both women and the environment in order to have
complete power.
● An attempt to control women and the environment leads to the destruction of
the environment
● Women like nature are viewed as objects to control, manipulate and
plunder(Shiva,1999)
● Power of patriarchy and colonialism depends on the exploitation and control
of nature, animals and human beings especially women. (Plumwood, 1994).
● Eco-feminists believe that there is a deep connection between earth and
women hence the terms mother nature or mother earth (Shiva, 1999).

Solutions
● Merchant (1995) feels that women have a central role in preserving and
understanding nature. They are called to lead an ecological revolution to
save the planet. However, this can be done if women’s role in the
construction of environmental knowledge is recognised (Shiva, 1998).
● It is unfortunate that patriarchal power has made women to turn against the
environment instead of living in harmony with it.
● Women have little access and control of environmental knowledge and the
natural environments e.g. wild vegetation, plantations, wild life, resort areas
among others(Macgregor in Morse and Stocking,1995)

48
● Women do not participate actively in the conservation and management of
resources. For example natural forests are viewed by women as firewood
land, wild animals as danger or game meat, physical features like mountains
as sources of rocks for bricks, grinding stones or refuge places in terms of
war.
● It is also unfortunate that women’s knowledge of the environment is not
considered scientific by western scientific standards (Momsen, 2004).
● Their indigenous knowledge of farming, forests and trees is viewed as linked
to intuition or supernatural, therefore excluded despite environmentalists
movements of the late 20th century (Njiro,1999).Women’s projects fail
because they are either based on western model or because they lack females
(Fortman,1986).
● For sustainable development to be achieved, women should be involved in
the conservation of the natural environment just as they are involved in the
tapping of the resources.

Applicability
● Women in Africa are left out in development projects (Macgregor, 1991). It
is for this reason that the ZNGP, (2004) has called for the involvement of
women in environmental issues and RM structures.
● Women also need to take studies that relate to environmental issues.
● The ZNGP also promotes equitable access to control and ownership of
productive resources including the natural resources.
● Dissemination of environmental information to both males and females is
crucial if our environments are to be preserved .It can be concluded therefore
that eco-feminism unifies gender and environmental issues. The purpose of
the unity is for conservation of nature for sustainable development. In Africa
women constitute the majority and annihilate the environment as they
search for fire wood, nuts , mushroom, vegetables ,fibres, fruits and soils
hence they need to understand processes of the landscape
degradation(Morse and Stocking,19950). Zimbabwe’s’ rate of deforestation,
partly caused by women has been estimated at 2% a year with fuel deficit in
5 out of 9 provinces including Matebeleland North and South, Midlands,
Masvingo and parts of Mashonaland East (Jackson,1995). With the current

49
 land reform and resettlement programme, the figure is likely to be much
higher.

Activity 2.7
● What are the implications of women’s lack of access to
environmental information?
● What practical strategies can be affected to ensure participation
of women in environmental and natural resource management?

Cultural

Cultural feminism has origins in the feminist theory by extremists or separatists

(Haralambos and Holborn, 2004).Among these are Card Gilligars and Mary
Daly.

● Cultural feminism believes in the superiority of the feminine (Momsen,

2004).According to them, the fundamental differences between men and
women should be celebrated. Their argument is that, women are inherently
kind and gentle .If women were to rule the world, there would be no war but
peace. The women’s’ way is viewed as the right way and that women
● Can live on their own in a society made of women. Men on the other hand
are vied negatively even their values. It is believed men value ideas of
independence, hierarchy, competition and dominating. These lead to conflict,
wars and chaos, while females value dependence, cooperation, relationships
community, sharing, trust and peace. These also encourage
● Peaceful co-existence. Women’s’ reproduction is seen as a source of power
which men are jealous of Men want to control women’s’ reproduction as
technology through the use of technology.

Applicability

50
 ● In Zimbabwe women are vied as reproductive technology for child
bearing .They are also a source of labour and they reproduce future
labourers. This is a source of power for women and who ever controls them
controls reproduction and labour.

Activity 2.8
● What are the disadvantages of believing in the superiority of the
feminine?
● List similarities between cultural and radical theory?

Multicultural Feminism

● Multicultural feminism arose as a result of dissatisfaction with global

feminism in a multicultural society. It has roots in the third world feminists’
theories and other post modernist theories.
● Third world feminists argue that there must be a multicultural theory that
recognises all other differences within which gender is contextualised.
● Gender inequalities manifest themselves differently in different cultures.
Cultural differences like class, ethnicity, religion, age and disability shape
gender differences in different societies.
● A multicultural theory should focus on inclusion of other oppressions and
consider intersection of gender with race, colonisation and exploitation of
women in the developing world (Momsen, 2004).

Applicability

● Zimbabwe is a multicultural society made of the following ethnic groups

Venda,Ndau,Ndebele,Kalanga,Karanga,Tonga,Shangani,Sotho,Korekore,Zez
uru and Manyika among others.

51
 ● Zimbabwe also has different religions, for example Christianity with its
different denomination. Christian Churches are grouped into Pentecostal,
missionary established , African Independent Churches. Parallel to these
is traditional religion, Islam etc. A multicultural theory should take these
differences into consideration, even solutions to women’s problems. Women
are treated differently in each religion, denomination and ethnic group.
Zimbabwe again is made of different classes, the upper class, middle class
and lower class that can be divided further into formal workers, informal
workers, and house wives.

Activity 2.9
* Choose two ethnic groups or two denominations in Zimbabwe and show how
women are subordinated differently in the chosen societies.
* What are the limitations of the multicultural feminist theory?

Conclusion
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Giddens, A. (2001) Sociology. Oxford, Polity Press.

Haralambos, M. and Holborn, M. (2004) Sociology; Themes and

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Henslin, J.M. (1999) Sociology; down to earth approach. Boston, Allen and
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Marcus, M. and Ducklin, A. (1998) Success in sociology. London, John
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Zvobgo,K.C.,Donzwa,B.R.,Gwaunza,E.G.,Kazembe,J.L. And Nzira, T.G.
(1997) Paradigm of exclusion: women‘s access to resources in Zimbabwe.
Harare, WLSA research institute.

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S.J. (2003) ’Patriarchy and domestication of women in

Zimbabwe; critique of female to female relations of oppression’ in Zambezia
Vol. 30 No.II

Njiro, E.I. (1999)’Women’s empowerment and the anthropology of

participatory development’. The feminization of the development process in
Africa.Westport, Connecticut; p31-50.

Pilcher, J. and Wheleham, I. (2004) Fifty key concepts in gender studies.

London, SAGE Publishers.

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Sanderson, S.K. (1998) Macro-sociology; an introduction to human
societies. New-York, Harper and Row publishers.

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Beyond literacy; Preparing gender equity for future generation, Bucharest,
School of education.

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Harare

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ZED bks

Sifuniso,M.,Kasonde,C.,Kimani,E.N.,Maimbolwa-Sinyangwa,I.,Kimani,W.
and Nalunmango, M.(2000) Gender sensitivity editing. London, Working
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achievement of women in the third world; A review of the evidence and
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women’s subordination’ in British journal of sociology of education, Vol. ii
no. 2

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Zimbabwe Labour Relations Act (1982) Government Printers, Harare

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 Inheritance Act (customary and civil)(2007) Legal Resource Foundation,
Harare

UNIT 3

Historical Development of Gender

by Daniel Mawere

3.1 Introduction
In Unit 2 we introduced you to theories of gender inequality. In this unit you
are introduced to the historical development of gender through four
approaches. The approaches are Women in Development, Women and
Development, Gender and Development and Third World Political
Economy. We feel that these approaches are important in tracing the
historical development of gender from focus on women’s exclusion from
development activities to focusing on development as it takes on board both
women and men. The approaches also seek to explain how development
affects women and why women and men are affected by development
differently. We hope the approaches will make you appreciate the many
views that have come up as societies endeavour to grapple with issues of
equality and equity between women and men in the development of nations
and societies the world over. The intention is to enable you to critically
examine gender and development as they relate to the Zimbabwean
experience in particular and the world in general.

3.2 Unit Objectives

By the end of this unit you should be able to:
● Define and explain the concept development as it relates to gender and
development.
● Trace the historical development of gender.
● Discuss the main features of each of the four approaches to development of
gender.

55
● Critically examine achievements and challenges of each of the four
approaches to the development of gender.

Approaches to explaining the development of the concept Gender

3.3 The concept Development

The concept development has various sheds of meaning to different people.
Generally development is about: change for the better; continuing
processes; collectivities of people; growth and prosperity; and
interrelationships. Among other theories, Modernization and Dependency
theories view development differently as is shown below.

Modernization theories, originating from west-centric institutions, view

development as economic growth and industrialization. Industrialization
therefore is a major indicator of development. One of the most influential
modernization theorists is W.W.Rostow of the United States. His 1960 book
(The Stages of Economic Growth) traces the economic growth of countries
through five stages using the analogy of aerodynamics.
● Stage 1 Traditional Stage or Handcrafting Stage: - in which primitive
societies depend upon human and animal power for production. Primitive
tools are used and production is mainly for local consumption.
● Stage 2 Pre-take off Stage: - in which the necessary infrastructure for
development is created. Transport and communication is improved.
Electricity and light machines will be used in agriculture and industry.
Modern institutions, such as elected bodies, codification of laws, banking
and transport systems take root.
● Stage 3 Take-off Stage: - in which the economy is poised for growth,
becomes self sufficient and self reliant in many aspects. The economy enters
the international market. Population growth is checked and national income
increases.
● Stage 4 Drive to Maturity: - in which the economy goes in for machine
building, space research, eradication of poverty and sophisticated machinery.
Society becomes affluent, socio-economic institutions are modernized and a
high standard of living is achieved.
● Stage 5 High Mass Consumption: - in which there is abundance of
everything to everyone. People enjoy all material comforts, and luxuries are
for asking.

As these countries prepare to develop, they need assistance in the form of

funds, technology and new markets.

56
Dependency is the perpetuation of underdevelopment. It is historical.
Dependency of the Third World countries is related and linked to the
colonial economy of the periphery to the centre. Dependency theories
therefore criticize the modernization concept of development. These theories
argue that the origins of persistent global poverty can not be understood
without reference to the entire international economic system. They argue
that underdevelopment is not a condition: it is an active process of
impoverishment linked to development. That is, some parts of the world are
underdeveloped because others are developed. They are not separate
processes but two aspects of the same process. In other words, economic
growth in developed countries created Third World poverty in its wake.

The word dependency comes from this link: some say the exploitation of
various regions for their raw materials and labour impoverished them and
made them depend on the West. Others point out that in fact it is the other
way round: that the West has been dependent on the Third World in order to
grow and prosper.

All in all, modernization theory sees capitalism as a creative force, causing

growth and progress. Dependency theory sees international capitalism as the
ruin of the Third World. Modernization theory sees rich countries as helpers
of poor countries; dependency theory sees them as the main obstacles to the
well-being of the poorer countries.

These models of development are heavily male based: development planners

assumed that men are the most productive workers. Women’s productive
role was ignored because it was often not directly linked to the market or the
formal economy. Brandt et al, (1980) explain why gender was not noticed in
development in the past when they say that; no political system assumed the
equal status of women; production-oriented societies tended to undervalue
their contribution; statistical methods largely ignored the contribution of
women as it was concentrated in the informal sector. Fagerlind and Saha
(1989) in Bown (1999) commented that women provided more health care
than all health services combined and yet outnumber men among the world’s
illiterate. Chinery-Hesse et al (1990) in Bown (1999) commented on
women’s contribution to development thus; Women’s distinctiveness lies in
the multiplicity of their roles. Whilst men can confine themselves mainly to
being producers, most women, in addition to being heavily involved in
economic production, take prime responsibility as home managers, child

57
bearers and careers of children, the sick and the elderly. As a result women
work more hours than men, usually with smaller resources, fewer
opportunities and lower rewards. By and large inequalities exist between
men and women. These inequalities typify gender differences and contribute
to disparities in development between them.

Development, argues anthropologist Arturo Escobar, not only ignored

women, but in fact had – and continues to have, in different cases –
extremely detrimental effects on women’s economic position. From the
1970s, the assumption of women as actors mainly in the reproductive sphere
began to be questioned. Over the decades since distinctive approaches have
emerged related to gender and development (WID, WAD and GAD, among
others). These frameworks guide development policies, research and
practice.

3.4 Approaches to explaining the development of the concept Gender

3.4.1 Women in Development (WID)

Origins
In the early 1970s, researchers on development began to focus on the
division of labour based on sex, and the impact of development and
modernization strategies on women. The concept, Women in Development
(WID), came into use during the United Nations Decade for Women (1975
to 1985). It is closely related to western liberal feminism which emphasizes
on gender equity and equal rights. The approach viewed women as passive
beneficiaries of development. In fact there is a growing realization that
women are being left out of economic development or are not benefiting
significantly from it (Moyoyeta, 2004). The approach stands for concern
with the disadvantaged position of women, and discrimination against them.
Research based on this concept recognizes that the impact of development
and social change on women differs from its impact on men. The main
objective of the WID approach, therefore, is to design actions and policies to
integrate women fully into development.

Main Features
The WID approach views women’s lack of participation as the main
problem. As pointed out earlier on, WID approach focuses on women. The
exclusion of women (half of the productive resource) from the development
process is viewed as the main problem under focus. Women’s subordination,

58
therefore, is seen in terms of their exclusion from the market sphere, and
limited access to and control over resources.

More efficient and effective development that includes women is the main
goal of the approach. Integration of women into existing structures of
development is viewed as the solution to the problem. The approach seeks to
integrate women into economic development through legal and
administrative support.

WID advances a number of strategies aimed at addressing the problem under

focus. Through WID, projects such as transfer of technology, extension
services, credit facilities, and other interventions that have a welfare
orientation especially projects on hygiene, literacy or childcare are
implemented. WID also focuses on advocacy strategies for more equal
participation of women in education, employment and other spheres of
society. The other strategy is to increase women’s ability to manage the
household (family planning). All these strategies are aimed at increasing
women’s productivity and income.

The approach also examines the sexual division of labour and the differential
impact of gender in development. Furthermore it recognizes that women and
men’s experience of development and societal changes are different.

Achievements
● The WID approach has enhanced people’s understanding of women’s
development needs, particularly the need to improve statistical measures
of women’s work and to provide women with more opportunities for
education and employment (Overholt, et al. 1984). The approach has
provided a checklist for ensuring women’s status in societies, a checklist
that is helpful and accessible to development technocrats.
● Programmes informed by the WID approach address women’s practical
needs by; creating wage employment, income-generating opportunities,
and improving access to credit and to education.
● Its presence at the UN helped to push for social legislation that enhanced
women’s civil and political rights in some countries.
● It has also been successful in helping secure a prominent place for
women’s issues at the United Nations (UN).
● The UN declared 1975 to 1985, the Decade for Women. A major
achievement of the decade has been the establishment of women in
development structures.

59
 ● WID has helped to mainstream gender issues in many development
agencies and policies as well as increase women’s visibility.
● WID highlights the fact that women need to be integrated into
development processes as active agents if efficient and effective
development is to be achieved. It has also encouraged research and debate
on women issues.

Limitations
Limitations of the approach noted later were that:
● The benefits of ‘modernization’ do not, in fact, trickle down automatically
or equally. Furthermore the approach focuses on integration of women into
ongoing development strategies. This often entails the acceptance of
existing social structures that perpetuate inequalities. The approach tends to
focus heavily on the productive aspects of women’s work, overlooking the
burden of social and reproductive functions. It should also be noted that
women’s issues tend to be increasingly relegated to marginal programmes
and isolated projects (Gender! A Partnership of Equals, 2000).
● The approach does not challenge gender relations and assumes that these
will change, as women become economic partners in development.
● WID views women as being outside the mainstream of development and
yet women are already playing a crucial part in development, for example,
in the domestic and agriculture spheres.
● By exclusively targeting women, WID creates tension, suspicion and
hostility.
● The approach tends to perpetuate gender inequalities as it focuses on
practical needs to the exclusion of strategic gender needs.
● The approach calls for women’s inclusion in development but it does not
call for changes in the social, cultural and legal structures that give rise to
inequalities in society.
● Because the approach relies heavily on modernization theory, it generally
assumes that western institutions hold most of the answers and it often
ignores the possible contribution of indigenous knowledge.

Critics see the WID initiative as “add-on” approach that, instead of

integrating women into the mainstream of development, marginalizes them
even further (Chiriga, 1998). For finer details on WID approaches study
Table 3.1 below:

60
Table 3.1
Different policy approaches to Third World women: Moser (1993: pp 56-
57)

61
62
 Activity 3.1
● Discuss with a friend on the limitations of the WID approach. Are the above
limitations a fair criticism of the approach?
● Assess the contribution of WID to the visibility of women in development
activities in Zimbabwe.

Women and Development (WAD)

Origins
The seeds of the WAD concept were planted during the 1950s and 1960s
when about 50 countries were freed from colonialism. Women who had
participated in independent movements felt that they must join with men in
building these new nations. The approach is Marxist in content as it drew on
dependency theory. WAD actually arose in the latter part of the 1970s. Its
main basis was critiquing the earlier approach of WID. Its origins are in the
argument that there should be a development approach to women that
recognizes the dangers of integrating women into a patriarchal world. The
approach seeks instead to create “women-only” projects, carefully
constructed to protect women’s interests from patriarchal domination
(Rathbeger, 1990). WAD therefore is an inclusive term meant to signify a
concept and a movement whose long-range goal is well being of society.

Main Features
The central point of the WAD approach is that women must be lifted from
poverty and contribute to and benefit from development efforts. The
approach stresses the distinctiveness of women’s knowledge, women’s work
and women’s goals and responsibilities. It argues for recognition of this
distinctiveness and for the acknowledgement of the special role that women
have always played in the development process. The work they do both
inside and outside the household is crucial to the maintenance of society.
The WAD perspective gave rise to a persistent call to recognize that women
are the mainstay of agricultural production in many areas of Africa, although
their contribution has been systematically overlooked and marginalized in
national and donor development plans (Connelly et al, 2005).

The main focus of WAD is on the interaction between women and

development processes rather than purely on strategies to integrate women

63
 into development. WAD sees both women and men as not benefiting from
the global economic structures because of disadvantages due to class and the
way wealth is distributed (Moyoyeta, 2004).

Global inequalities have been viewed by WAD as the main problem facing
poor countries and their citizens. The approach contents that economic
growth and the industrialization of the west has been based upon the
exploitation of nations that have been subjected to colonial rule. WAD has
been very persuasive in raising the debate that women have a role not only
in reproduction but in production as well. It focuses on women’s economic
roles and class decisions. For development to be meaningful for women both
these roles have to be acknowledged. In other words the approach
recognizes that women have always been part of development.

The approach focuses on the relations between developed and developing

nations, particularly their impact on the lives of women and men in
developing countries. It maintains that women’s position will improve once
needed structural and institutional reforms are installed at the local and
international levels. Women therefore must have both the legal right and
access to existing means for their improvement and that of society.

Achievements
Gains have been made through the approach in:
● Raising consciousness,
● Publicizing women’s concerns, and
● Bringing them into the policy arena.
In other words WAD significantly extends the WID critique of mainstream
development approach by bringing in a broader analysis.

Limitations
Although the WAD approach has offered an important corrective to WID’s
assumption that male dominated states can be used to alter gender
inequalities, it also has a number of weaknesses:
● Marginalization and smallness of scale have limited the transformative
potential of women-only organizations.

64
● The approach also sees women as a class, downplaying differences among
women, particularly along racial and ethnic lines.
● It focuses on production and income generating projects at the expense of
women’s reproduction work.
● The approach has been criticized for assuming that the position of women
will improve if and when international structures become more equitable. In
doing so it sees women’s positions as primarily within the structure of
international and class inequalities. It therefore underplays the role of
patriarchy in undermining women’s development and does not adequately
address the question of social relations between men and women and their
impact on development (Moyoyeta, 2004).

Activity 3.2

● Examine the role played by WAD in highlighting the contribution of women

to development. What shortcomings are evident in this approach?

Gender and Development (GAD)

Origins
The GAD approach emerged in the early 1980s. GAD originated from the
experiences and analysis of Western socialist feminists interested in
development issues. It overlaps with WAD but the socialist feminists in this
approach combine lessons from the limitations of both WID and WAD. It
also emerges from the grass-roots organizational experiences and writings of
Third World feminists. It is born out of frustration with the lack of progress
of WID policy, in changing women’s lives and in influencing the broader
development agenda. Its objective therefore, is to remove disparities in
social, economic and political equality between women and men in
development.

Main Features
● The GAD approach argues that women’s status in society is deeply affected
by their material conditions of life and their position in the national,
regional, and global economies.
● GAD also recognizes that women are deeply affected by the nature of
patriarchal power in their societies at the national, community, and
household levels. Moreover, women’s material conditions and patriarchal
authority are both defined and maintained by the accepted norms and values

65
 that define women’s and men’s roles and duties in a particular society (Sen
and Grown 1987 in Connelly et al, 2005).
● GAD focuses not just on women but also on the social relations between
women and men, be it in the workplace or in other settings. It therefore
seeks to address issues of access and control over resources and power.
Gender relations are seen as the key determinant of women’s position in
society, not as immutable reflections of the natural order but as socially
constructed patterns of behaviour-the social construction of gender-which
can be changed if this is desired. The GAD approach focuses on the
interconnection of gender, class, colonial history, culture, and position in the
international economic order (Moser, 1993).
● The approach sees the gender division of labour as the root cause of
inequality, especially since it undervalues the work done by women in the
household. It recognizes women as agents of development, not merely as
passive recipients of development assistance. The need for women to
organize themselves and participate in political processes is stressed. Current
social, economic and political structures are questioned by the approach. It
promotes interventions and affirmative action programmes that integrate
women into ongoing development efforts (Gender Mainstreaming, 2005).
● Given that women are usually in a disadvantaged position in the work place
as compared to men, promotion of gender equality implies explicit attention
to women’s needs, interests and perspectives. The objective then is the
advantage of the status of women in society, with gender equality as the
ultimate goal (Gender! A Partnership of Equals, 2000).
● GAD looks at the impact of development on both women and men. It seeks
to ensure that both women and men participate in and benefit from
development and so emphasizes equality of benefit and control. It recognizes
that women may be involved in development, but not necessarily benefit
from it (Moyoyeta, 2004).
● The GAD approach also plays particular attention to the oppression of
women in the family or the ‘private sphere’ of women’s lives. As a result we
have seen projects develop addressing issues such as domestic violence and
violence against women.
● GAD brought about a gender perspective, thereby bringing under scrutiny
the whole gamut of difference in power, legal rights, roles, constraints,
opportunities and needs of women compared to men. The argument being
that to bring women into the center stage of development, the existing
gender relations need to be re-examined and wherever needed to be
restructured (Mainstreaming Gender Equity, 2005).

66
 Achievements
● The biggest contribution of GAD is the inclusion of men into the approach.
● It does not exclusively emphasize the solidarity of women.
● The approach acknowledges that women spend a lot of time; - bearing,
raising children, cooking, washing, and fetching water, caring for the sick
and elderly, attending to the fields and small stock.
● It also observes that women have no control over their fertility and over
productive resources.
● The GAD approach has also helped us to understand that the gender division
of labour gives triple roles (reproductive, productive and community) to
women in society.
● It goes beyond seeing development as mainly economic well being but also
that the social and mental well being of a person is important.
● Arising from the GAD analysis is the need for women to organize
themselves into a more effective political voice in order to strengthen their
legal right and increase the number of women in decision making.
The approach therefore: liberates, empowers, and promotes partnership and
equitable distribution of resources and benefits. It transforms unequal
relationships; challenges and changes gender insensitive traditions,
institutions, policies and structures. Above all it also humanizes. WID and
GAD approaches are summarized in Table 3.2 below:

Table 3.2 Comparison of WID and GAD

Women in Development Gender and Development

(WID) (GAD)
The An approach which views An approach to people centered
Approach women’s lack of development
participation as the
problem.
The Focus Women Relations between women and
men
The The exclusion of women Inequitable relations (between
Problem (half of the productive women and men, rich and poor)
resource) from the that prevents equitable
development process development and women’s full
participation

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 The Goal More efficient, effective Equitable, sustainable
development development with men and
women sharing decisions making
and power
The Integrate women into Empower the disadvantaged and
Solution existing structures women
The Women only projects Identify/address practical needs
strategies determined by women and men to
Women’s components improve their condition

Integrated projects At the same time address strategic

gender needs of women and men
Increase women’s
productivity Address strategic needs of the
poor through people centered
Increase women’s income development

Increase women’s ability

to manage the household
Source: Connelly et al, (2005)

Activity 3.3

● What is the difference between Practical Gender Needs (PGN) and Strategic
Gender Needs (SGN)?
● Which approaches stress the need to meet PGN and SGN needs if
development has to take on board both women and men?
● Gender and Development approach focuses on the socially constructed basis
of differences between men and women and emphasizes the need to challenge
existing gender roles and relations. To what extent is this statement a true
characterization of GAD?

Third World Political Economy Approach

Origins
Proponents of this approach are Third World Feminist Writers.
Main Features
● It is a critique of the three approaches discussed above.

68
● It locates the oppressive social systems within the traditional patriarchy
systems, colonial, neo-colonial, and the globalization processes which
impact on women and men differently.
● The approach blames the earlier approaches for focusing on white and
middle class women and generalizing explanations for the subordinate
positions of all women.
● Historical context is ignored – women have had different experiences at
different periods in history. The approach analyses and traces the situation of
women from pre-capitalist, capitalist/colonial and post- colonial periods.
● Though patriarchy is central, it does not explain changes and diversity in
gender neutrality.
● Questions of race, class, and ethnicity should not be ignored.
● Experiences of western women are different from those of third world
women. The approach looks at globalization of economy and its impact on
men and women. Third World women are exploited; as Third world women,
as the African race, as working class, and within each class.
● Not all men are able to oppress all women.
● Young women are the most oppressed and exploited, for example, daughter-
in-law (muroora) versus Mother-in-law (Vamwene) and Daughter-in-law
versus her husband’s sister/ aunt (Vatete). Elderly women and aunts use
patriarchal values to oppress other women. The lowest class or ethnic group
is the most exploited.
● Advent of capitalism and colonialism worsened the problems of third world
women. Women had double burdens, for example, subsistence agriculture,
childbearing, work outside the home, among other burdens.
● Money became the medium of exchange but women were not party of the
money economy. Women produced food and became totally dependent on
men for cash goods, for example, school fees, farming implements, furniture
and loans among others.
● Peasant economy marginalized women and made them powerless.
● Traditional structures were modified to fit into the capitalist system.
● Before independence in third world countries, the state reproduced gender,
class and race. After independence it reproduced class and gender. Women
produced and continue to produce for use value. The proponents of the
approach see third world women as producers whilst western women are
consumers.
● Due to the diversities indicated above, women cannot speak with one voice
even in post –modernism because of race and class.

69
● The neo-colonial period has not improved women’s position, as they have no
access to technology and technological know-how. Third world women are
therefore alienated from technology and knowledge.
● Cultural constraints in the family further subordinate women.
● Capitalism and patriarchy therefore combine to exploit third world women.

Limitations
● The approach does not focus much on cultural constraints.
● Focus is mainly on capitalism and post-modernism.
● It does not explain subordinate position of women before the advent of
capitalism.
● The approach ignores sexuality and reproduction (biology).
● It does not go deeper into the root causes of subordination of women.

Activity 3.4
● In what ways do you think the Third World Political Economy approach is a

critique of WID, WAD and GAD approaches?

● Does the approach, in your own opinion, sufficiently address the situation of
women and men in the developing world?

Conclusion
In this unit we have shown how focus initially was on women only as
evidenced by the WID and WAD approaches. The WID approach hoped to
bring women into development through providing them with opportunities
for employment or engaging them in income generating projects. This
would, as it were, remove them from the private sphere into the public
sphere. The WAD approach was arguing for publicizing women’s concerns,
and
bringing them into the policy arena. Criticisms of these approaches resulted
in the Gender and Development approach with its focus being mainly on the
inequality in relations between men and women. It goes beyond seeing
development as mainly economic well being but also that the social and
mental well being of a person is important. The GAD approach goes beyond
seeing development as mainly economic well being but also that the social
and mental well being of a person is important. It should also be noted that
the biggest contribution of GAD is the inclusion of men into the approach.

70
The Third World Economic Approach comes in as a critique of the first three
approaches which tended to focus on women in the developed world without
articulating the concerns of women in the third world. The approach brings
in the part played by some women in perpetuating gender inequality when
these women connive with patriarchy to exploit, subordinate and oppress
young women in the third world.
References

Chiriga, J.S. (1998) Perspectives on the Beijing Policy Process in SADC in

Southern Africa in Transition: A Gendered Perspective. Harare; Sapes
Books.

Connelly, M.P., Murray, L.T., Macdonald, M. and Parpart, J.L. Feminism

and Development: Theoretical Perspectives. International Development
Research Centre. Accessed online 2005.

Gender! A Partnership of Equals, (2000) International Labour Office

Moser, C.O.N. (1993) Gender Planning and Development – Theory,

Practice and Training. London; Routledge.

Moyoyeta, L. (2004) Women, Gender and Development. Lusaka; Women

for Change.

Overholt, C., Anderson, M., Cloud, K., and Austin, J., Eds. (1984). Gender
roles in development. West Hartford, Kumarian Press.

Rathgeber, E. (1990). WID, WAD, GAD: trends in research and practice.

Journal of Developing Areas, 24 (4), 489-502.

Rostow, W.W. (1960) The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist

Manifesto. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

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 UNIT 4

GENDER ANALYSIS FRAMEWORKS AND TOOLS

by Nogget Matope

4.0 Introduction

Gender analysis provides a basis for robust analysis of the differences

between women and men’s lives and this removes the possibility of analysis
being based on incorrect assumptions and stereotypes. In this unit we present
a discussion on what is gender analysis, why do gender analysis and the
tools for gender analysis. The tools we will look at are the Harvard
Analytical framework, Moser Gender Planning framework and Women
Empowerment framework. Our approach in this unit will impress upon you
to adopt an appropriate and effective interpretation of gender issues from a
gender perspective as you tackle the various activities in the unit and
continually relate the issues to your own experiences in education, the
workplace and the community.

4.1Unit Objectives

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

● Explain the meaning of the term gender analysis and explain its purpose
● Define and describe some gender analysis tools
● Use and apply different gender analysis tools to conduct a gender analysis to
various case studies and situations.

4.2What is Gender Analysis?

Gender analysis:
● Examines the differences in women’s and men’s lives, including those which
lead to social and economic inequity for women and applies this
understanding to policy development and service delivery.
(gender/framework: 2006).

72
● Is concerned with the underlying causes of these inequities.
● Aims to achieve positive change for women and men.
● Is a tool to better understand the realities of women and men, boys and girls
whose lives are impacted by planned development.
● Is used to understand the culture, expressed in construction of gender
identities and inequities.
● Aims to uncover dynamics of gender differences across a variety of issues.
● Includes gender issues with respect to social relations, activities, access and
control over resources, services, institutions of decision –making and
network of power and authority.
● Identifies specifically how public policy affects women and men differently.
● It also brings to the fore these differences and to the attention of those who
can make a difference.
● It also provides an understanding of gender relations which include
experiences of women as distinct from men’s, how women are contributors
and producers to the community under review and ways in which women are
subordinate to men (http//www.snvword.org/cds/rgGEND 2006).

● Aims to achieve equity rather than equality. Recognizes that women’s and
men’s lives, experiences, needs, issues and priorities are different. These
vary according to various factors such as marital status, ethnicity, income
levels, and age among others. This entails adopting different strategies to
achieve equitable outcomes for women and men and different groups of
women (gdrc.org.gender/framework:2006)

4. 3 Why do gender analysis?

* Information is essential for mainstreaming of gender at all levels from
formulation of national legislation and policy to planning and
monitoring of specific interventions.
* Gender based analysis should be a common thread woven from beginning
to end throughout entire policy not merely an additional heading or section
in briefing notes.
* It gives information on who performs what activities and at what levels-
household, community or national.
* It is important to correct unfairness- who owns what resources, who uses
what resources for what? Who has ultimate control of resources at different
levels.
* To determine the different ways in which women and men do or do not
benefit from particular livelihoods interventions.

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 * Both qualitative and quantitative gender analytical research can be used to
raise awareness of gender issues, to inform policy makers, to provide
material for gender training and to monitor the differential impact of policy,
project and budget commitments on women and men.
* To highlight different responsibilities of women and men that might
constrain their participation in a project.

Activity 4.1 Gender based analysis

⮚ Identify an issue that affects you as student at a university.
⮚ What is the issue?
⮚ Who says it is an issue?
⮚ Why has it become an issue?
⮚ How does your personal or professional background affect understanding of
the issue?
⮚ How are the root causes perpetuated?
⮚ What factors are influencing this issue?
⮚ Does this issue require policy analysis or development?

You have successfully carried out gender based analysis by answering the
above questions which are often asked to identify or define policy issues.
Your responses to the above will assist you to identify different needs of
women and men, their ability to understand different stakeholders’ capacity
to participate in any given intervention. It will also assist you to identify
major environmental factors (culture, religion, politics) which have critical
influence and maybe responsible for maintaining the system of gender
differentiation and equity.

Activity 4.2
● Compare your responses to activity 4.1 with fellow student/s.
● How different or similar are your responses?
● What does that tell you about the needs/issues of women and of men?
(dependent on age, ethnicity, disability, marital status, sexual orientation
and whether they have dependents)

4.6 Tools for gender analysis

Several development workers have come up with strategies of carrying out

gender analysis in development work or interventions. There are a number

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 of gender analysis tools available but this unit will focus only on three
namely the Harvard Analytical Framework, the Gender and Development
(Moser) approach and the Women Empowerment approach (Longwe). .
However, other approaches such as the ABC of Gender Analysis
Framework (FAWE), Socio Economic and Gender Analysis (SEAGA),
Social Relations and Life Cycle approaches will not be looked at in this
particular unit.

The Harvard Analytical Framework

The Harvard Analytical Framework also referred to as Gender Roles

Framework or Gender analysis framework was developed by the Harvard
Institute for International Development in 1985 in collaboration with the
WID office of USAID. This approach is based on the WID efficiency
approach. ( Remember you looked at his approach in the preceding unit).

It is one of the earliest gender analysis and planning frameworks. The

framework is a useful data gathering tool that charts and organizes
information and can be adapted to many situations.

Features

The framework is originally outlined in Overholt, Anderson, Cloud and

Austin (1984).The framework consist of a matrix for collecting data at the
micro (community and household) level. It has four interrelated components
which are explained as follows:

Tool 1: the Activity Profile

The activity profile answers the question ‘who does what’ and identifies all
relevant productive and reproductive tasks. For example a daily activity
profile analyses different roles and responsibilities of women and men based
on description of their daily tasks according to gender and age. You may also
specify the percentage of time allocated to each activity, whether it is carried
out seasonally or daily and the location of the activity. The following activity
will assist you to use the activity profile in the table below:

Activity 4.3
● Choose a household in a particular location.
● List the main activities of the female and male members of the family.
● Draw up a 24 hour chart time schedule for the activities you have

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 identified allocating a specific amount of time to each activity.
Guiding questions for discussion:
● What is the significance of who does what in your household profile?
● How do perceptions of women and men differ towards each other’s
activities, roles and responsibilities?
● How do the schedules and workloads of women and men differ in a typical
rural household? How do they differ in an urban setting?

Example of Harvard tool: The activity profile( adapted from March et al

1999)

Activities Female Male Time

Women, girls Men, boys
Productive
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Activity 4
Reproductive
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Activity 4
Community linked role
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Activity 4
Tool 2: Access and Control – Resources and Benefits

The access and control profile allows for detailed listing of the resources
available to people to carry out the tasks identified in the activity profile. It
identifies whether it is women or men who have access to resources, who
control their use and who controls the benefits that arise from their use
(household or community level). March et al (1999:34) say
“…access simply means that you are able to use a resource, but this
says nothing about whether you have control over it”.

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 For example, women may have access to land but little influence or control
over which issues to do with the land are discussed. The person who controls
a resource is the one ultimately able to make decisions about its use and
whether it can be sold. For example, in rural patriarchal Zimbabwe the land
is controlled by the males and most women only have access to it. Access to
income does not always lead to increased control of assets within the
household, or to greater say in decision making in the household or wider
society. Below is a table showing access and control of resources and
benefits by women and men.

Example of Harvard tool 2: access & control profile

Control Control Access Access

women men women Men
Resources
Land/ property (include
all significant types of
assets)
Employment (formal &
informal)l
Money & credit

Skills & technology (access

to &control over acquired
skills &technical facilities)
Education & training
Benefits

Activity 4.4
● Use the above table and place a tick or a cross if women and men have
control and access in the indicated resources.
● What does it tell you about access and control of resources?
● Who benefits more in terms of access and control of resources? Why?

Tool 3: influencing Factors

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The influencing factors allow you to chart the differences in the gender
division of labor, access and control as listed in tools 1 and 2. By identifying
constraints you will be able to look for opportunities which will facilitate a
more equal sharing of resources and more involvement of women in
development, projects and programs. It also helps to identify past and
present influences and can give an indication of future trends. The
identification of external constraints and opportunities assist you to
anticipate what inputs you would need to make the intervention successful.
The following table identifies some of the influencing factors, possible
constraints and opportunities:

Table 4. Influencing factors

Influencing factors Constraints Opportunities

Cultural Early marriage, Lobbying women’s
polygamy, poverty groups, legal
parameters
Educational Institutional Legal interventions
structures, poverty, and acts,
stereotypes, lack of sponsorship and
mobility and aid from agencies,
access, government
discrimination priorities
Economic Lack of political Financial
will, lack of assistance, external
funding, world funding, political
recession will
Environmental Institutional Lobbying women’s
structures, legal groups, external
parameters, lack of funding
mobility,
community norms
Religious beliefs Stereotypes, Change in mindset
discrimination
Other

Tool 4: The Project Cycle Analysis

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 The project cycle is the fourth tool of the analysis framework. This consists
of a series of questions which are designed to assist you to examine a project
proposal or an area of intervention from a gender perspective, using gender
disaggregated data and capturing the different effects of social change on
women and men (March et al, 1999). A number of key questions are asked
at each stage of the project cycle: identification, design, implementation and
evaluation.

Uses of the framework

● It is best suited for project planning rather than program or policy planning.
● As a gender –neutral entry point when raising gender issues with
constituents resistant to considering gender relations and power dynamics.
● For baseline data collection.
● In conjunction with Moser’s framework drawn on the idea of strategic
gender needs.

Strengths of the Harvard framework

● It is practical and hands on.
● Once data have been collected, it gives a clear picture of who does what,
when and with what resources. It makes women’s role and work visible.
● It distinguishes between access and control over resources.
● It can easily be adapted to a variety of situations and settings.
● It is relatively non-threatening as it relies on facts only.

Potential Limitations
● It does not delineate power relations or decision making processes. It offers
little guidance on changing existing gender inequalities. It tends to result in
gender- neutral or gender specific interventions, rather than those that can
transform existing gender relations.
● It tends to oversimplify, based on the tick the boxes approach to data
collection and ignores complexities in the community which includes
networks and kinships. You only need to look at the dynamics of the Shona
kinship ties.
● It is basically top- down planning tool and excludes women and men own
analysis of their situation
● It ignores underlying inequalities such as class, ethnicity and race,
encouraging an erroneous view of women and men as homogeneous
categories.

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● It emphasizes separation of activities and resources based on age, sex
ignoring connections and cooperative relations across these categories.
● The profile yields a somewhat static view of the community, makes no
reference to changes over time in gender relations.(adapted from Training
Workshop and trainers in Women, Gender and Development, June 9-21,
19996)
● It can encourage a simplistic yes/no approach by asking whether or not
women have access and control to resources. However, women’s
experiences are a more complex reality, for example, a women’s may have
access to some village land, and have partial control in that they can decide
what crops to grow and how. It may be left to elders to decide which plot to
give the women. Looking simply at access and control can also hide the
bargaining processes which take place in accessing the pieces of land
(March et al 1999).

Activity 4.5
● Use the picture code of Mr. and Mrs. Moyo to carry out gender analysis
using the Harvard Analytical Framework
● Answer the questions on the picture code.

Moser’s Gender Planning Framework (the GAD approach)

Origins
This approach challenged traditional assumptions towards development
work which encouraged treating women’s issues as separate concerns, GAD
approach argued for an integrated gender- planning perspective. It was
developed in the early 1980’s at University of London, UK by Caroline
Moser with Caren Levy. Moser (1993: 87) distinguishes gender planning
from traditional planning methods and says,
First, (gender planning) is both political and technical in nature. Second, it
assumes conflict in the planning process. Third, it characterizes planning
debate

According to Moser, women as a group have their own particular needs that
differ from those of men as a whole. These needs are determined by the
gender roles they perform. GAD brought women to deliberate on women’s
issues and allows for discussion by both men and women about their
relations and calls for transformation of relationships and structure which
promote gender inequity. As a result it makes visible differences due to class,
race, age, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation.

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 Features
The framework has three concepts:
● Women’ s triple role
● Practical and strategic gender needs
● Categories of WID/GAD policy approaches.

Moser tool 1: Gender Roles Identification

This tool includes making visible the gender visible the gender division of
labor. It can be carried out by mapping all the activities of women and men
in the household over a 24 hour period. A triple role for low income women
is identified by Moser, productive, reproductive and community
management roles:

Reproductive work
These are activities and tasks that involve the care for the household and
community. These include the care and education of children, fuel and water
collection, food processing and preparation, healthcare, housing and
housekeeping. For most low income or rural communities these activities are
labor intensive, time consuming and is usually the responsibility of girls and
women.

Productive work
These are activities and tasks which involve the production of goods and
services for consumption or for sale on the market for example, crop and
livestock production, formal employment, self employment and marketing.
Women and men can be engaged in productive but their functions and
responsibilities differ in most cases (March et al 1999). Women carry visible
and less valued than that of men.

Community management roles

These are activities and tasks that involve the collective organization of
services and social events for example ceremonies, community development
activities, church services, funerals, local political activities and resources
used by everyone such as water, heath care and education. Most of this work
is carried out on a voluntary basis and is an important aspect for the
community’s spiritual and cultural development. Both women and men
engage in community activities, though a gender division of labor prevails
here. Moser divides community into work into two different categories
namely, unpaid and monetary rewards for work done.

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For the community roles and activities women are unpaid and such work is
carried out during women’s ‘free time’ (March, 1999). On the other hand,
men’s involvement in such activities like politics brings in monetary rewards
and benefits through improved status and power. “Moser’s framework
recognizes that women perform reproductive, community management
activities alongside productive, it makes visible work that tends to be
invisible” (March, 1999:57). It is therefore necessary to use the triple role
analysis in a planning framework as any development intervention in one
area of work will affect activities performed in the other two areas. For
example, women’s reproductive workload can prevent them from
participating in development projects or if they do participate they may
spend less time on other tasks.

Moser tool 2: gender needs assessment

Moser distinguishes two types of gender needs practical gender needs and
strategic gender interests. Women and men can easily identify these as they
often relate to living conditions. Women may identify safe drinking water,
food, healthcare, cash income as immediate interests/ needs that they must
meet. These needs are not specifically women’s needs but the whole family’s
needs, yet often women identify them as theirs because it is their
responsibility to families’ needs. Addressing practical gender needs improve
women’s lives but do not challenge the prevailing forms of subordination.

For Moser strategic gender interests are the needs that would enable women
to transform the existing imbalances of power between women and men. A
strategic gender interest begins with the assumption that women are
subordinate to men as a consequence of social and institutional
discrimination against women. Addressing women’s strategic position has to
do with dismantling the whole spectrum of which women’s subordination is
rooted. Strategic gender needs vary in particular contexts and dismantling
these may entail delving into such issues as legal rights, discrimination,
demanding equality in political, cultural and economic spheres, domestic
violence and equal pay. According to March et al (1999:58) “meeting
strategic gender needs helps women to achieve greater equality and
challenges their subordinate position, including their role in society”.

Moser tool 3: disaggregating control of resources and decision making

within the household

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 This tool asks the questions: who controls what? Who decides what? How?
The Harvard access and control profile enables you to note who is likely to
benefit from implementation of a project. The Moser framework looks at
who has access and control over resources (political, social, economic etc)
although most women have access to the fields as mentioned earlier, they do
not have control over produce and income. Several other factors are
responsible for shaping and changing gender relations.

Moser tool 4: balancing of roles

This relates to how women manage the balance between their productive,
reproductive and community tasks. It asks whether planned intervention will
increase a woman’s workload in one role with consequences for her other
roles.

Moser tool 5: WID/GAD policy matrix.

The WID/GAD policy matrix provides a framework for identifying or
evaluating the approaches that have been (or can) be used to address the
triple role, and the practical and strategic gender needs of women in
programs projects. This therefore examines interventions in light of
WID/GAD approaches.
This examines interventions in light of WID/ GAD approaches.

Moser tool 6: involving women and gender aware organizations and

planners in planning.
The aim of this tool is to ensure that practical and strategic gender needs are
identified by women ensuring that ‘real needs’ as opposed to perceived
needs are incorporated into the planning process.

Uses of the framework

● For planning at all levels from policies to projects.
● In conjunction with Harvard framework
● Training in gender issues to raise awareness of women’s subordination.

Strengths
● It moves beyond technical elements of planning
● It is easily applicable and accessible.
● It makes all the work visible and valuable to planners through concept of
triple roles.
● Distinguish between types of gender needs: those that relate to women’s
daily lives but maintain existing gender relations (practical gender needs)

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 and those potentially transform existing gender subordination ( strategic
gender needs).
● It challenges inequality and alerts to the possibility that not all development
projects to do with women do this.
● Moser framework helps you to think through the main policy assumptions
which are driving a particular project (Moser, 1993, March, 1999).

Limitations
● It does not mention other forms of inequality such as class, race or ethnicity
and does not examine change over time as variable. It is static like the
Harvard framework.
● Idea of gender roles obscures the notion of gender relationships and can give
a false impression of natural order and equity.(http/www.gdrc.org/gender
framework)
● Like Harvard, Moser framework emphasizes what women and men do and
resources available to them rather than focus on their relationships,
connectedness and not separateness.
● For some people the division between strategic and practical is artificial as
they argue that there is a continuum. Others argue that all practical
interventions affect women’s power and status even when this is not factored
into the planning process or recognized by those involved in the project
(Longwe, 1994).
● It is criticized for focusing on women’s strategic gender needs at the expense
of men who need to be taken on board.

Activity 4.6
Study the picture code of ‘the lie of the land’
● Using the Moser framework, identify the needs of women and men in
your community.
● Identify the differences between the needs of women and men and
categorize them under practical and strategic needs.
● Discuss why do women do the women in the picture code say ‘ no we
do not work’ and show how the community can be sensitized to
appreciate the roles of women.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT FRAMEWORK

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Sara Longwe and Robert Clarke in 1994, in Zambia developed women
empowerment framework as a response to the development workers
perceived inability to understand the issues and concerns of women in the
Third World. Longwe argues that most of the development work has
concentrated on ensuring equality between women and men in various
sectors like education and employment. This has tended to leave women out
of the development process. For Longwe, “development means enabling
people to take charge of their own lives, and escape from poverty…”
(March, 1999:92). The male domination of government is preserved by
women to serve male interests, where women are given most of the work
and men collect the rewards. Where men have vested interests to continue to
subordinate women its folly to expect them to realize the value of gender
equality and give women an equal share of the cake.

Features

The framework identifies five hierarchical levels in the empowering process.

The extent to which these are evident in any area of social or economic life
determines the level of women’s empowerment. Gender and development
workers use the framework to analyse development organizations’ degree of
commitment to empowerment and equality of women as they address/ look
at the various ‘levels of equality’ addressed by a particular intervention. The
levels illustrate how discussion of inequality at one level leads into
discussion of inequality at other levels. The levels are interconnected
illustrating that empowerment is found in the movement from one level to
another. The process of empowerment maybe better understood in terms of
the following five levels of ‘women empowerment’ framework.

Welfare

Welfare is the lowest level and looks at women’s material welfare relative to
men. At this level one looks at whether women have access to resources like
food, income, medical care. If an intervention is confined to this level we are
talking about women being given these benefits rather than producing /
acquiring such benefits for themselves. This is zero level as most of the
interventions focus on meeting the basic needs without the wherewithal for
enlightenment and empowering process.

Access

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Access has been defined as ‘women’s access to factors of production on an
equal footing with male counterparts: equal access to land, labor, credit,
training, marketing facilities, public service and benefits (March, 1995). For
example female farmers may improve their production and general welfare
by increased access to water, land, market, skills and information. Women
maybe ‘given’ information by higher authorities or increase their own
access. If it is the latter, then there is beginning of conscientisation, of
recognizing and analyzing their own problems and taking action to solve
them. For Longwe, equality of access can be obtained by applying the
principle of equality of opportunity which calls for reforms in laws and
administrative practices to rid of all forms of discrimination.

Conscientisation

Conscientisation is the next level where there is conscious understanding of

the difference between sex and gender and an awareness that gender roles
are cultural and can be changed. Empowerment means sensitizing to beliefs
of traditional division of labor as God given and recognizing that women’s
subordination is not part of natural order of things but is imposed by
discrimination. According to Paulo Freire conscientisation calls for women
becoming subjects and not objects of their own lives coupled with the belief
or brief that sexual division of labor should be fair and agreeable to both, not
overtly or covertly entail the domination of one sex by another. It is here we
see the potential and strategies of improved information as enabling process
of consciousness driven by women’ own need to understand underlying
causes of their problems and to identify strategies for action.

Participation /Mobilisation

Longwe defines this as women’s equal participation in decision making

process, policy making, planning and administration (March, 1995).
Mobilization complements conscientisation as women come together for
recognition and analyzing problems, identification of strategies to overcome
discriminatory practices and collective action to remove these practices.
They may connect with larger women’s groups to learn about their successes
of women in similar situations. At this level leadership is important in the
mobilization process. It is not a scenario where tokenism is at play but full
involvement and representation of the women constituency. Reflect on some
of the projects in Zimbabwe where it has been lauded that women are full
participants- how have the women’s participation been shortchanged?

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 Control/ Empowerment

This calls for women’s control over the decision making process through
conscientisation and moblilization to achieve equality of control over the
factors of production and distribution of benefits. Equality of control means
a balance of control between women and men so that neither side dominates.
Women have taken action so that there is gender equality in decision making
over access to resources- women have direct access to resources no longer
wait indefinitely to be given resources at men’s discretion for example, a
widow’s struggle to retain her property after husband’s death.

Women empowerment tool2: level of recognition of women’s issues

According to Longwe women’ issues are all issues concerned with women’s
equality in any social or economic role and involving any of the levels. An
issue becomes a women’s issue when it looks at the relationship between
women and men rather than simply women traditional and subordinate sex-
stereotyped gender roles. Women empowerment must be the concern of both
women and men and the degree which a project is defined as potentially
empowering women is defined by the extent to which it addresses women’s
issues.

Longwe postulates three different levels of recognition of women’s issues in

project design:
● Negative level: at this level, the project objectives make no mention of
women’s issues. In some instances, women are more likely than not left
worse off than before by such a project.
● Neutral level: project objectives recognize women’s issues, but concerns
remain that the project intervention does not leave women worse off than
before.
● Positive level: project objectives are positively concerned with women’s
issues and with improving the position of women relative to men.

Uses of the framework

It is used or planning, monitoring and evaluation, allowing users to question

whether their interventions have transformatory potential.

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Strengths of the framework
It shows that development interventions as containing both practical and
strategic elements.
It places emphasis on empowerment
It is useful to identify the gap between rhetoric and reality in interventions. It
permits an assessment of where women already have equality, and what still
remains to be done.

Limitations
It is static and takes no account of how situations change over time.
It does not include other forms of inequality.
It does not examine the institutions and organizations involved.
It does not examine the macro-environment.
It looks at the relationship between women and men only in terms of
equality- rather than at the complicated system of rights, claims and
responsibilities which exist between them.

Activity 4.6
Read this case study and answer the questions that follow:

An engineering firm is given a contract to build a bridge in a small

community and a new road leading to a larger town kilometers away. This
community is part of a group of communities linked together by a network
of markets. Women are the vendors and buyers in these markets. They travel
by foot with their wares on their heads and babies on their backs, from
market to market. the terrain is dangerous and precarious. Bridges are often
washed away during heavy rains.
The engineers from the firm are told that they must discuss the project with
the community to make sure it fulfills their needs. The engineers are also
encouraged to employ local people and train them in various skills. The firm
meets with local officials and, much negotiation, they agree on the number
of people to be trained in the construction of the bridge and bridge
maintenance skills. The engineers and local officials are especially proud
that they have selected two young women to be included in the training. The
training is held and the bridge is finally built. It is connected to the new road
leading to the far away town.
Soon, however, it is noticed that most women are not using the new road.
They are still taking the dangerous footpath to cross the ravine and go to the
market. Also, the women trained in bridge maintenance seem after some

88
 months to lose interest in working on the project.

Questions guiding the discussion

● Use the Women Empowerment Framework to conduct gender analysis of the
situation in the case study.
● Make assumptions /educated guesses if necessary. List things that might
have gone wrong with this project.
● Based on your analysis, make recommendations on how to revise the project
for more positive, gender- equitable outcomes.

Conclusion

In this unit we have looked at what is gender analysis and why we carry out
gender analysis. We have looked at three of the tools and frameworks for
gender analysis. The activities and tasks we have tackled have helped us to
understand the gender differences and inequalities that permeate most of the
societies in which we live and how these differences impact on women’s and
men’s lives differently. Gender based analysis has also helped us to analyse
the division of labor between women, access and control over resources and
benefits as well as the different but significant needs and interests of women
and men among other issues. Gender analysis provides information which is
qualitative and quantitative on gender relations, creates understanding and
awareness of existing gender issues at the level of development workers,
community researchers and planners. The following unit on gender issues
will further assist you in understanding the implications of different issues
on women and men.
References
Kabeer , N. 1994 Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, Verso. London
Kabira, W. M. & Smyth, I and Mukhopadhyay, M. 1999 A Guide to Gender Analysis Frameworks. Oxfam.
Molyneux, M. 1981 Women’s Emancipation Under Socialism a Model for the Third World. IDS Discussion paper
DP157 Sussex Institute of
Development Studies
Moser, C. 1993 Gender Planning and Development:: Theory, Practice and Training. Routledge. London
http: www.gdrc.org/gender/framework/ what is (11/29/2006)
ILO/ SEAPAT’s Online Gender Learning and Information module (12/1/2006)

UNIT FIVE

GENDER ISSUES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA.

89
 By Tenson Tawanda Mugodzwa

Introduction

This unit focuses on culture, religion and poverty as inter related concepts in
the social construction of gender inequality. Each concept is defined,
followed by an exploration of how the concept plays a role in creating
gender inequality.

Objectives

By the end of the unit you should be able to:

● Define and explain the concepts culture, religion and poverty
● Show the extent to which each of the concepts creates gender inequality
● Suggest intervention strategies that could be instituted to mitigate gender
inequalities caused by the three gender issues.

Culture and Gender Inequality

Culture may be defined as the beliefs, values, behaviour, and material

objects shared by a particular group (Macionis, 1989). In its broadest sense,
culture may be viewed as everything that is socially learned and shared by a
group of people in society.

Religion and Gender Inequality

In this section we look at religion and how it perpetuates gender inequality.

From the onset, we need to point out that religion as a concept is not only
complex, but very controversial. This is because of the nature of the subject
itself and the current isms and schisms emanating from the current trends in
the heated debate about religion. We also need to appreciate that the world in
general and countries in SADC in particular, are made of different societies
with diverse societies, beliefs and religions.

ACTIVITY 5.1
1. What is your religion? What influenced you to believe in this religion?
2. What other religions do you know?
3. If there is one God, why do we have different religions
4. Why do people believe in different religions?

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From the task above, we can note that the debate on religion is indeed
controversial. In real practice, it is enormously difficult to separate religion
from culture as the two are intertwined social institutions serving the same
purpose in society, that of indoctrination, mental colonization, and the
creation of a docile, passive and loyal member of a given society (Rodney,
1981)

In modern day Zimbabwe, it is difficult to discuss the issue of religion

without making reference to Christianity. This is because Zimbabwe is made
up of people of diverse background with different cultural beliefs, and the
majorities of them are Christians or claim to be Christians in one way or
another. This makes the discussion very controversial, for both the reader
and the writer are bound to be regarded as blasphemous, for people are
going to ask ‘’ who are we to undo what God the Almighty has put in place.
‘We need to also acknowledge that it is written in the Bible that ‘’the fear of
God[and what He has put in place ] is the beginning of wisdom.’’[Proverbs
1;7].It is against this background that the discussion shall largely draw
examples from the Christian perspective, although not ignoring the
traditional perspective and its controversies per se.

Haralambos and Holborn [1995] noted that, in the Bible, Original Sin in the
Garden of Eden was woman’s. She tasted the forbidden fruit [alone, we
assume], tempted Adam [in his great God-given wisdom, we assume], and
has been paying for it ever since. In Genesis 3; 16 the Lord said, ‘’ I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring
forth children [alone, we assume], and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee’’. Such is the way females are subordinated
through religion in most Zimbabwean societies and the world over.

ACTIVITY 5.9.
Explain, giving examples how the above quotation leads to the
subordination of females by males in the church, the family and the society
in general. What can be done to liberate women from this dominant position
in society?

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From the activity above, you may have noticed that the quotation is a
‘mythological justification for the subordinate position of women in society’
[Haralambos and Holborn, 2004; 92]. Most people might see the ‘reality’ it
contains of their relationship with their spouse[s] as an accurate description
of their status, that is;

1. Females are child-bearers[child-bearing machines, child-breeders, or are

they?]
2 Females are mothers and housewives
3 Females do the cooking, cleaning, sewing, and
washing[domestic/household chores]
4 Females take care of males and are subordinate to male authority
5 Females are largely excluded from high-status occupations and from
positions of power.

The above generalizations about females have applied, and continue to be

applied to most known societies. Research in Zimbabwe and the world over
has revealed that there is not, and never has been, a society in which females
do not have an inferior status to that of males. From the discussion, it is
evident that religion is one social institution, which leads to women
inferiority and the general subordination of females.

ACTIVITY 5
1. Which sex makes up the majority of church- goers? What could be the
reason?
2. Who occupies positions of leadership in most churches between males or
females?
3. What measurers may be put in place to ensure that females also
participate in
decision-making in churches?

RELIGION AND THE SOCIAL REPRODUCTION OF INEQUALITY

The role of religion as a pacifier to social injustices has been hotly debated.
For example, the gap between the so-called developed and underdeveloped

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countries has increased by at least twenty times over the last 150 years
[Rodney, 1981]. To explain this disparity, one bourgeois economist
deliberately ignored the historical context and made everything appear God-
given about the situation and put forward the following Biblical explanation;

‘ For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance
[when others are starving], but from him that hath not shall be taken away
even that which hath[Mathew 25;29, cited in Rodney;1981;29].
The above illustrates one way in which religion may be used to reproduce
and justify social inequality. From the discussion, it may be observed that
religion, like any other social institution, serves the interests of those in
power and must be seen as a mechanism to maintain order, harmony,
stability and the status quo. This scenario is clearly portrayed in Rodney’s
[1981] assertion that the church’s role is primarily to preserve discrimination
and social inequality by stressing humility, docility and acceptance. Rodney
[1981] argues that during the days of slavery, the church was brought in on
condition that it would not excite African slaves with doctrines of equality
before God. In those days slaves were taught to sing ‘All things were bright
and beautiful, and that the slave master was to be accepted as God’s work
just like the slave living in a miserable hovel and working 20 hours a day
under the whip. Similarly, in colonial Africa churches could be relied upon
to preach turning the other cheek in the face of exploitation, and they drove
home the message that everything would be right in the next world, what
Lenin implied when he commented that ‘religion is the opium of the poor.’
All this is evidence that religion may be used to maintain social inequality.

Commenting on the status of females during the height of colonial rule in

Africa, Rodney [1981] noted that, what happened to African women under
colonialism is that the social, religious, and political privileges and rights
disappeared, while the economic exploitation continued and was often
intensified. It was intensified because the division of labour according to sex
was frequently disrupted. Traditionally, African men did the heavy labour of
felling trees, clearing land, etc. When they were required to leave their farms
to seek employment, women remained over-burdened with every task
necessary for the survival of themselves, the children and even the man as
far as foodstuffs were concerned. Since men entered the money sector more
easily and in large numbers than women, women’s work became greatly
inferior to that of men with the new value system of colonialism: men’s
work was ‘modern’ and women’s work ‘traditional’ and
‘ Backward’ (Rodney, 1981).

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The above discussion has tried to put religion in the gender analysis
perspective. Next let’s try to explore how religion serves to maintain and
perpetuate gender inequality. First the definition of religion shall be given.

What is religion?
Like the family, the religious institution is exceedingly complex. Chalfant
and Labeff (1988) view religion as a social institution concerned with the
ultimate meaning of life with the answers to questions that are unanswerable
by natural means, such as death, illness tragedy, or the feeling of
powerlessness. In other words religious beliefs and practices provide seem to
answers and consolation when we encounter experiences we do not
recognize and questions we cannot answer. You can imagine the prayers we
have made (of course in privacy) before a dreaded examination or job
interview or upon the death of a loved one.

Religion and Gender Inequality

Macionis (1989), Chalfant and Labeff (1988) have all observed that religion
plays a significant part in the perpetuation of gender inequality. Christianity
in particular has been a major force in the support of the traditional female
roles. It has been noted that the Old and New Testament both reveal support
for the traditional, subservient role of women (Rodney 1981). In the Old
Testament, for example women are frequently defined as the property of
males (Driver cited in Chalfant and Labeff 1988). One of the Ten
Commandments forbids coveting the wife of a neighbour in the same way
that it forbids coveting the other property of a neighbour.In this particular
case, women are viewed as the private property of men.

ACTIVITY 5.11
1. Why do men marry?
11. Why do women get married?
111. Are married people ‘properties’ of their spouses? Explain giving
reasons.

The subordinate position of women in society is evident in passages from

many of the sacred writings of major world religious. Macionis (1989)

94
observed that the Koran- the sacred text of Islam- asserts that males are to
have social dominance over women.

“Men are in charge of women…hence good women are obedient ….As for
those rebelliousness you fear, admonish them, banish them from your bed,
and scourage them (Kaufman, cited in Macionis, 1989: 432).

Christianity, which is the dominant religion in Zimbabwe, also supports

patriarchy. Although Mary the mother of Jesus is highly revered within
Christianity, the New Testament contains the following passages.

“A man…is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. For
man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man
created for woman, but woman for man ( 1 Corinthians 11: 7-9) This clearly
illustrates that religion portrays females as not only subordinate to males but
rather as sex objects meant whose sole purpose is to satiate the appetite and
pleasure of males. Females therefore are viewed as second class citizens, not
only to be dominated by males, but to please them as well.. This is further
evidenced by the following passage:

‘As in all churches of the saints, the women should keep silence in the
churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as
even the law says. If there is anything they desire to know let them ask their
husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.’(1
Corinthians 14:33-35).

It can be noted from the above passage that the public sphere is for males,
while females are destined for the private sphere, and religious sympathizers
are quick to subtly justify patriarchy by arguing that God’s word should not
be questioned. Such thinking subsequently maintains the status-quo as
females are confined to their traditional feminine roles. This is further
elaborated in the following passage:

‘Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church…as the church is subject
to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands’
(Ephesians 5: 22-24).

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It is evident from the ongoing discussion that religion is an integral social
institution in the construction and perpetuation of gender stereotypes and
inequalities. This is revealed in the following passage:
‘A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The
heart of her husband trusts in her… She does him good, and not harm, all the
days of her life… and works with willing hands… She brings food… she
rises while it is still night and provide food for her household’ (Proverbs
31:10-15).

The above passage clearly illustrates females’ subordinate position and the
reproductive roles they undertake in the home and the wider society. .Maybe
this explains why females at whatever age wake up earlier than their male
counterparts, especially in the Zimbabwean context. By the time males and
other children wake up , they are certain to find their bathing water warm
and their food ready on the table. And to justify that the public sphere is for
males, consider the following passage:

‘Her husband is known in the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of
the land’ (Proverbs 31:23).

Such is the situation in most Zimbabwean families house holds where the
females are confined to their traditional reproductive roles in the private
sphere, and males are under perpetual societal pressure to participate in the
public sphere

CONCLUSION

This part of the unit has attempted to highlight the role played by religion in
not only constructing but maintaining gender inequality.

GENDER AND THE WORK PLACE

INTRODUCTION
Sex stratification has had mostly negative effects for women, the work world
remains designed for men and tends to benefit men (LaBeff,
1988).Henceforth, in this section we look at gender inequality at the
workplace. Although women have moved into the paid labour force in large
numbers in Zimbabwe, they continue to experience a wide range of
discriminatory practices.

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 Activity 5.

(1) Enumerate the various ways in which women are discriminated against at
the work place in your country.
(2) Suggest some long-lasting solutions to these discriminatory practices

From the activity above, you may have realized that in spite of the major
strides made to bring about gender harmony at the work place in Zimbabwe,
women still experience various prejudices. These range from income
inequality to employers unwillingness to hire them or unable to believe that
they are capable. Women continue to shoulder the overload of performing
demanding jobs on top of being wives and mothers. They continue to
struggle to provide adequate economic support as single parents, and they
face sexual harassment on the job.

Of these problems, the issue of income inequality has received greater

attention. Because women predominate in low-paying clerical and service
jobs and men in the higher-paying positions in business and professions,
men continue to earn much more than women. Even within the same
occupation, the average salary of women is always lower than the average
salary for men (Macionis,1989).
ACTIVITY 5.21
● Identify factors responsible for the income disparity between males and
females in Zimbabwe.
● For each identified factor, suggest a possible remedy.

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INCOME DISPARITY

BETWEEN MALES AND FEMALES

From the activity, it maybe observed that several factors are responsible for
the income disparity between the two sexes. As you may have established,
males and females tend to hold different occupations, and this fact strongly
benefits men. Most women work in low-paying , dead-end service jobs
,such as waitressing and clerical positions. Men on the other hand , dominate

97
 high-paying managerial jobs such as Company Secretary, Executive, or
Director. Less than one-forth of all professional, managerial, and technical
jobs are held by women, and most of these are in school-teaching
(Richardson,1981).

Women in traditionally masculine professionals are often referred to in terms

of their gender: for example, lady lawyer, female physician- just as men in
traditionally feminine jobs are referred to in terms of their gender-E.G.: male
nurse. It has also been noted that women are rarely found in higher –paying
blue-collar jobs such as carpentry, masonry, and other crafts. The majority of
women in Zimbabwe are employed in traditionally feminine occupations
such as secretary (not Permanent Secretary), nurse, receptionist, typist, and
office orderly. The salaries for such jobs are pathetically low in Zimbabwe
and are far much lower than masculine jobs of doctor, dentist, and
professor.etc. A critical analysis of the situation reveals that even in the same
occupation, women on average do not make as much as men.

ACTIVITY 5.23
● What reasons could be used to explain the above situation?

● Suggest some solutions to alleviate the identified factors?

One major reason to this scenario is that male workers have somewhat better
educational qualifications than their female counterparts. In short, the higher
the educational qualifications, the closer women come to making as much as
men. But despite this observation, the gap still remains in every occupational
field.

Activity 5.24

(1) Suggest reasons to explain this gap.

(2) Also put forward solutions to each identified reason.

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As you may have observed, this income gap may be partially explained by
several factors. First, women tend to be newer entrants into fields such as
law, medicine and lecturing, and have yet to reach positions of seniority and
better pay. Second, some women work on an intermittent basis, shaping their
jobs or careers to fit with their husbands’ jobs and with bearing and rearing
children. Some women drop out of the labour force while their children are
young: when they go back to work, they will have lost several months or
years that would have gone towards advancement and have lost seniority to
others younger than them. Third, men are more likely than women to have
jobs that permit overtime and part- time work, which further increases their
income.

Finally, the issue of discrimination on the part of employers and institutions

cannot be over- looked. Women may be discriminated against in the hiring
phase by being offered lower –level jobs than equally qualified men are
offered. Moreover, women maybe passed over for promotion a number of
times in favour of men who may better suit the traditional image of the
business or occupation. Employers may feel that women are less able and
therefore are not willing to pay them higher salaries. Although laws have
been passed to make such forms of discrimination illegal, those laws are
often not rigorously enforced. In most cases, the women involved must take
the time and spend money for a lawsuit before a company is forced to
change informal practices of sex discrimination.

As women move into traditionally masculine jobs, they also face potential
resentment for upsetting the status-quo, or for contradicting accepted notions
regarding gender role stereotypes. In the ZRP\ZNA EG; men may react to
women entering patrol with resentment and hostility. The man may fear that
they are in more physical danger when working with a female partner or
when a female partner responds as a back-up to a crisis situation. Martin
(1980) found that women police/ army officers are pressured into feeling a
sense of inferiority by a variety of verbal and non-verbal cues, including
phrases used to describe them, joking, gossip, traditional gender role
etiquette, and sexual harassment. Such negative male reactions act as
barriers to full acceptance and co-operation, and are perhaps the most
serious problems faced by female officers in particular and female workers
in general.
Conclusion
The experience of women in the paid labour force is but one instance of our
society’s overall devaluation of women. Schur (1984) suggests that women

99
 experience systematic inferiorisation in society, which then becomes self-
fulfilling and self-perpetuating. However, despite the obstacles created by
sex stereotypes at the work place, women have made considerable gains in
the Zimbabwean society. Of late we have seen the first woman in the
Zimbabwean Presidium, the first women officer cadets , the first women
Vice Chancellors, Permanent Secretaries, ministers,etc, but still, more needs
to be done to see w omen in decision- making positions in companies,
organizations and professions.

5.5.0 GENDER AND HIV/AIDS

5.5.1 INTRODUCTION

AIDS/HIV has , in a period of just one and a half decades, reached

unprecedented crisis levels in Zimbabwe. It is estimated that up to 25% of
people aged between 15 and 49 years are infected with HIV in
Zimbabwe(GOZ,1999). This section therefore examines the issue of
HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe with particular reference to women and children ,
as they are the most vulnerable in the Zimbabwean society due to a number
of reasons some of which are the subject of this discussion.
Gender analysis suggests that slightly more males than females are infected
with HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe(UNICEF,1994). However , the current
situation shows that women and girls are disproportionately affected by
HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe(UNICEF,2003). According to UNIAIDS(2004),
nearly 50% of the 38 million people living with HIV /AIDS globally are
females. On average, there are 13 women living with HIV/AIDS for every
10 men(UNICEF,1994), and the gap continues to grow. In most countries,
women are being infected with HIV/AIDS at earlier ages than men. Recent
studies show that there are on average 36 young women living with
HIV/AIDS for every 10 young men(UNAIDS,2004).

.
Activity 5.25
(1)What makes women more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection in your
country?
(11) What measures may be put in place to alleviate the problem?

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 5.5.2. WHY WOMEN ARE MORE VULNERABLE HIV/AIDS

5.5.2.1 Biological vulnerability

According to UNICEF (1994), women can far more easily become infected
through penetrative sex than men, and vaginal and/or anal sex is much more
risky than other modes. To explain this situation, Gender links and the AIDS
Law Project (2004) came up with the following reasons;

⮚ The vagina and anus have larger areas of exposed and sensitive skin
⮚ The virus can survive for longer in the vagina and the anus than on the
surface of the penis
⮚ There is a higher viral load of HIV/AIDS in the semen than there is in the
fluids of the vagina or anus
⮚ The vaginal and anal walls are much more likely to be ruptured during
vaginal or anal sex, especially if the sex is violent or coercive or when a
woman is very young and the cervix is not yet fully developed. Cuts,
scrapes, and bruises allow easy access for the HIV/AIDS VIRUS into the
blood stream.
5.2.2.2 Socio-Economic Status
In Zimbabwe, AIDS appears to be present among the professional elite and
could result in severe disruption in administrative and economic activities.
At the same time , as a virus that thrives on poverty ( UNICEF,1994 ),
HIV/AIDS is likely to advance to its terminal stage fastest among the most
disadvantaged economic groups who have a poor nutritional status and little
access to social services such as health and education . With fewer
opportunities in the formal and informal sectors, more and more women may
resort to selling sex for an income, putting them at greater risk of infection.
This situation is particularly rampant among female university students in
Zimbabwe.

ACTIVITY 5.18
(1)Who is more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS male or female students in
Zimbabwean universities?
(11) What could be done to reduce their vulnerability?

UNAIDS(2004) FOUND OUT THAT;

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⮚ Women may be unable to negotiate safer sex or the use of condoms.
Marriage does not protect women from HIV/AIDS infection because more
than four-fifth s of new infections in women results from their husbands or
primary partners.
⮚ Women in Zimbabwe are mostly economically dependent on their
husbands’ or partners and fear rejection and/or violence if they insist on
condom use
⮚ Poverty undermines women’s opportunities to seek the knowledge , power
or time to be concerned about safer sex
⮚ Women are expected to bear children to demonstrate their fertility and fulfill
their roles as mothers
⮚ Because women are traditionally perceived as care-givers the ‘burden’ of
care that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has created more frequently falls to
women than men
⮚ Women and young girls may use sex as a commodity in exchange of goods ,
services , money, accommodation or even status. This situation is rampant in
Zimbabwean universities and tertiary colleges , more often than not with
older men.

ACTIVITY 5.19

(1) What measures may be adopted by the Zimbabwean Government to curb

the rise of HIV/AIDS infection in general, and among female students in
tertiary colleges?

CONCLUSION
The issue of HIV/AIDS vis-a- vis gender equality needs serious
consideration from all stake- holders and the Government if gender equality
is to be a reality rather than an elusive myth in Zimbabwe. This calls for
focused attention on developmental policies and processes with a ‘human
face’ if we are to achieve the objectives of the Zimbabwe National Gender
Policy and curb the increasing rise of HIV/AIDS infection .

POVERTY AND GENDER

INTRODUCTION

This part of the unit looks at poverty in relation to gender issues in

Zimbabwe. We begin by looking at the various dimensions of poverty.

WHAT IS POVERTY?

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 Defining poverty is not an easy task. With the constantly changing features
of the modern economy as well as the conceptions of what is necessary and
what is not in modern life, it is difficult to establish who is considered poor.

Although poverty always signifies deprivation (Brym, 1995), the concept is

commonly used in two different ways, relative poverty and absolute poverty.
According to Haralambos and Holborn (2004), relative poverty refers to a
state of deprivation of social resources in relation to some standard of
greater privilege.

ACTIVITY 5.12

(1) In Zimbabwe, is there equal access to social resources such as land, capital
and technology?
(2) What can be done to ensure that equal access to resources is achieved?
(3) Do men and women access resources equally in Zimbabwe?
(4) What measures may be implemented to achieve equal access to resources
between the two sexes in Zimbabwe?

From the exercise above it may be noted that there are disparities in
accessing social resources in Zimbabwe based on race, ethnicity, social
class and gender. This implies deprivation of vital resources useful for
social mobility. A much more serious matter is absolute poverty, which
means a state of deprivation of social resources that is life-threatening
(Haralambos and Holborn,2004). Being in a state of absolute poverty is not a
matter of comparing oneself with others, rather, it means that survival itself
is in doubt. Judging by the current Zimbabwean situation, most families ,
both urban and rural fall into this category of poverty, where they survive on
either two meals, or worse still on one , that is ,if it is there at all.

ACTIVITY 5.13

(1) What constitutes poverty in Zimbabwe?

(2) How can levels of poverty be reduced in Zimbabwe

POVERTY AND GENDER

Poverty does not affect males and females equally. Consequently, growing
attention has been directed towards the ferminisation of poverty which

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 means ‘ a trend by which females represent an increasing proportion of the
poor (Macionis,1989:273).

ACTIVITY 5.14.

(1) Is the above quotation a true reflection of the situation in Zimbabwe?

(2) What could be the possible reasons for this situation?
(3) Suggest possible solutions to alleviate the situation.

From the activity above, we may notice that the majority of poor
Zimbabweans are females. The problem of poverty is most serious for
women who are the heads of house holds (UNICEF,1994). They often have
the financial burden of raising children, and if working, the majority
typically hold low-paying jobs. This leaves them vulnerable to prostitution
as they struggle to make ends meet.

ACTIVITY 5.15
(3)

(1) What are the major causes of prostitution in Zimbabwe/

(2) Who is more vulnerable to prostitution in Zimbabwe ,males or females?
(3) What could be the possible reasons for this?

Zimbabwe has experienced serious macro-economies instability with limited

foreign exchange, rising inflation and negative growth since 2000 (UNICEF
2003). This scenario has led to increased poverty among many Zimbabwean
households increasing poverty continues to seriously undermine the
country’s ability to ensure adequate access to quality basic services that
include health and education. This has resulted in the increased vulnerability
of children and females as they find themselves excluded from growth and
development. Consequently because of poverty, some females married or
not, find themselves as small houses as they struggle for survival. The most
hard hit are children of the poor particularly the girl child. These depend on
the resource allocation decisions of adults who often cannot properly feed
and clothe themselves in the current Zimbabwean context. According to
UNICEF 2003, children of unmarried mothers especially unmarried
adolescent mothers may be particularly disadvantaged because of their
mothers’ immaturity, poor social position and educational deficiencies. Poor
children especially girls are disadvantaged by the lack of continuity as they

104
often assume the adult roles of caring for younger siblings and working
including engaging in child labour and commercial sex thereby exposing
themselves to HIV/AIDS.

The Impact of Poverty

Poverty has had negative effects on the Zimbabwean society, with a
profound impact on women who must see that their families are fed. The
inflationary pressures and high cost of basic commodities has torn many
families apart. Stunting chronic under- nutrition has been on the increase. A
deficiency and anaemia have remained a perennial problem with about 31%
of women of child-bearing age affected (UNICEF, 2003). The rise in
hospital and medical fees has affected access to health-seeking status for
children and women in Zimbabwe. The effects of HIV/AIDS and the related
demands on the health sector have compounded the situation.
The effects of poor or inadequate access to quality basic social services are
wide-ranging. Indications are that school enrolment and retention of teachers
and medical experts have declined over the last couple of years, particularly
because of the increase in poverty and effects of fees and other related costs.
Such a situation makes the poor females vulnerable to abuse.

CONCLUSION

Unequal access to socio-economic resources is a major cause of poverty in

Zimbabwe. Inequality has continued to be severe particularly in relation to
income, access to credit, land and other vital productive assets (UNICEF,
2003).Equally significant as a cause of poverty has been the HIV/AIDS
pandemic. HIV/AIDS has undermined most families’ ability to secure stable
incomes and expand their asset bases. The relationship between poverty and
HIV/AIDS is controversial and debatable, but poverty causes people,
especially young women to engage in sexual activities to alleviate their
financial problems. Poverty remains a serious impediment to gender equity
and equality, and it remains the greatest challenge the Government and stake
holders need to address if equality between the two sexes is to be achieved
in Zimbabwe.
References

Brym,1995

Chalfant and Labeff (1988

Haralambos and Holborn[1995]

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 [Haralambos and Holborn, 2004;

LaBeff,1988

Macionis (1989

Martin (1980

Richardson,1981

Rodney, 1981

Schur(1984

UNAIDS,2004

UNICEF,1994

UNICEF 2003)

UNIT 6 : GENDER ISSUES IN EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE

Tenson Tawanda Mugodzwa

Discussion Questions

1. Critically examine “the part played by schooling in the socialization of

young girls and thus in determining their occupational choices and eventual
level of achievements” (Mahoney: 1985:11)

- Particular attention should be given to aspects of the hidden curriculum, e.g.

the portrayal of women in textbooks, the classroom/school
climate/environment, curricular vis-à-vis teacher attitudes and expectations,
and career choice.

106
2. Schools are partriarchal institutions, which have served, and continue to save
to perpetuate women’s subordinate position in society” (Lemmer; 1993;7) .
Critically assess the validity of this statement.
3. Assess the role played by the hidden curriculum in the creation and
perpetuation of gender stereotypes and gender inequality, in Zimbabwe
educational institutions.

6.o ITNRODUCTION

⮚ In all societies and at all times the education of girls and women has been
considered less important and has assumed a different form from the
education of boys and men (Gilbert and Taylor, 1994).
⮚ Social scientists have of late begun to reappraise the role played by the
school in determining the status and life outcomes of women.
⮚ It has now become pertinent to analyse the way in which educational
practices and processes shape women’s social and educational inequality.
This involves examining the process of education and activities in schools
rather than the outcome of that education. In this unit, we look at gender
issues in education in Zimbabwe ,focusing on how females are discriminated
in the various subtle ways in the school system.
⮚
6.1 OBJECTIVES

BY THE END OF THIS UNIT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

107
 ● Explain giving examples, the various ways in which the girl child is
discriminated against in the school system.
● Discuss the role played by the hidden curriculum in the social
reproduction of gender inequality in Zimbabwe.
● Examine the part played by schooling in socializing the girl child and
thus determine her occupational choices and eventual achievement.
● Suggest some recommendations towards a gender responsive
environment in schools in Zimbabwe
●

6.2 The school as an agent of socialization

⮚ The school is seen as a formal agent of gender role socialization (Dekker and
Lemmer,1993). Gender role socialization refers to the means whereby
social expectations regarding gender – appropriate characteristics are
conveyed to the child. These expectations are usually based on stereotyped
beliefs. Gilbert and Taylor (1994) conclude that gender role socialization
has a dual significance for children ;

i. It provides them with a model for present behaviour , and

ii. It prepares them for adult life.

⮚ Gilbert and Taylor (1994) also noted that differential gender role
socialization for boys and girls occurs largely through the processes of
formal schooling and the effects thereof are best discerned in,;

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 i. unequal educational outcomes e.g. the different patterns of achievement
ii. aspiration and self evaluation shown by males and females.

ACTIVITY 6.1
What reasons may be used to explain the usually unequal educational
outcomes between boys and girls in Zimbabwe? Suggest solutions to
alleviate the unequal outcomes.
The Curriculum
The school transmits culture to its learners in the form of knowledge and
skills which together with aims of the school and education system as a
whole, are detailed in the official curriculum.

⮚ The school curriculum operates on two levels,

i. intentional and official and

ii. unintentional and unexamined, which is called the hidden curriculum.

⮚ While it is possible that the transmission of culture which takes place in

schools via the curriculum can improve the life chances of the
disadvantaged, it can also perpetuate existing class, racial and gender
divisions in society (Haralambos and Holborn, 2004). In this respect the
hidden curriculum is recognized as a potent agent in communicating gender
appropriate behavior
Toys
Toys are an important means of informal learning, particularly during the
pre-primary phase of schooling. Research findings show that “masculine
toys were found to be more varied, complex, active and social and

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 encouraged spatial, mathematical and scientific skills whereas feminine toys
were simpler, and focused on passive and solitary activity” (Lemmer;
1993;10). Kelly (1981:1981) and Samuel (1981) similarly found that toys
which orientate a child to mathematics and science are marketed virtually
exclusively for boys.
Learning and Resource materials
A major source of unintentional teaching and learning about gender roles
takes place through educational materials and media. According to Gilbert
and Taylor (1991) textbooks present limited portrayals of women and girls
and although attempts have since been made to reverse this trend, more
recently published school textbooks are still narrow in their representation of
gender roles.

Textbooks
Preschool and primary school textbooks especially basic reading books,
provide children with models against which they measure their own parents
and also provide models of acceptable behaviour. Mostly males are
portrayed in a variety of occupations whereas female occupations are
confined either to FANTASY ROLES, such as witch and princess, or to a
narrow list of traditional female roles, such as housewife, mother and nurse.
A more recent publishing date does not necessarily signify an end to gender
stereotyping.

- Secondary school textbooks have also been criticized for their unbalanced
portrayal of women. The main charge against history books is that women,
their social history and their achievements are conspicuous by their absence
(Lemmer, 1987).

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- Although Mathematics and Science are traditionally considered to be
impersonal and even neutral subjects, analyses of textbooks used in schools
have shown a qualitative and quantitative difference in their portrayal of
men and women. Women are associated with stereotyped occupations,
illustrations favour males, books frequently refer to the students exclusively
as “he” and texts suggest that Science and Mathematics represent a male
preserve (Killy, 1981). Moreover, according to Bazler and Simonis (1992),
editions of science texts published in the 1980s show no significant
improvement in the portrayal of women.

Teachers
Teacher attitudes, teacher expectations and the positions occupied by male
and female teachers within the school hierarchy are important components
of the hidden curriculum and contribute to the way in which children
perceive themselves.
Teacher Expectations
Teacher expectations of pupils’ performance and abilities can operate as a
self fulfilling prophecy within the classroom, i.e. there is a tendency for the
performance of the pupil to conform with the expectations prescribed by the
teacher.

⮚ Unspoken assumptions about gender roles and the attitudes towards women
maintained by teachers have a potent influence on the gender role
socialization of male and female pupils. Research suggests that in spite of
the professed egalitarian ideals of some teachers, educators often act

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according to sub-conscious prejudices in the classroom (Stanworth, 1983).
Consider the following aspects as illustration;

Behaviour
Teachers generally consider girls to be appreciative, calm, cooperative and
sensitive but less independent, creative and autonomous than boys in the
classroom. Pupils who do not measure up to the teacher’s gender
expectations are considered deviant. Teachers also cherish implicit
expectations about the social roles that males and females should play both
in the classroom and in adult life e.g. teachers expect girls to enter
subordinate occupations and to have their careers disrupted by marriage and
they communicate these expectations to pupils.
Achievements
Teachers believe boys to be more logical and quicker to grasp concepts; girls
to be neater and more precise at written work. This is clearly illustrated by
Spender’s (1982) study in which teachers on five occasions and in three
countries were issued report cards which sometimes featured the name of a
boy and sometimes featured the name of a boy and sometimes the name of a
girl. Teachers were asked to make recommendations about the future of the
children on the basis of identical information on the reports. In all cases
teacher expectations of boys wee more varied, challenging and prestigious
and more financially rewarding.
Teacher - Pupil interaction
It has been noted that teachers treat children according to expected gender
roles in the classroom e.g.

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⮚ Talk – teachers spend about two thirds more time talking to boys, who are in
turn allowed about two thirds of pupil talk (Spender, 1982). Boys receive
significantly more assistance from teachers as a result of this increased
verbal communication.
⮚ Waiting – teachers encourage girls to seek attention by conventional
methods e.g. raising of hands whereas boys are more likely to make verbal
requests which usually result in more immediate to response. Teachers
ignore girls for longer, periods of time, boys obtain attention by rowdy a
social behaviour, girls are addressed collectively, boys by individual names
(Mahoney, 1982).
⮚ Identity – Teachers tend to know more personal detail about the boys they
teach than about the girls. Girls are an anonymous group, “faceless bunch”
about when little personal detail is known (Stanworth; 1983:45)
⮚ Reward and Punishment – children’s self esteem is not only shaped by the
quantity of teacher attention they get but also by the quality of that attention.
Rewards and punishment meted out within the classroom differ for boys and
girls and thus also reinforce gender role expectations. Boys are regarded as
aggressive unruly but essentially intelligent and are given more attention in
the form of rewards and even punishment. Boys’ failures are seen as the
result of a lack of effort rather than lack of skill (Safilios – Rothschild,
1982). Girls are more often rewarded for conforming behaviour and are
encouraged to be compliant but not autonomous.
Effects of biased interaction
The overall effect of biased interaction in the classroom is that girls
experience the inferior status afforded to them within the intimate sphere of
the classroom daily. It can be concluded that this does not constitute the
kind of climate in which confidence and a sense of personal worth is

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 inspired. Sadker and Sadker concluded that day to day life in classrooms
has remained fundamentally unchanged with boys receiving overall
preferential treatment during formal education, despite the implementation
of various equity programmes.
Teachers as Models
Measor and Sikes (1992) have observed that teachers provide important role
models for children, in this regard, concern has been expressed by educators
about the under-representation of women in positions of leadership in the
education system and the identification of male and female teachers with
specific age groups.

⮚ Most school teachers worldwide are female, with the greatest concentration
of women in pre-primary and primary school teaching. In contrast, women
are under represented in headships and other positions of leadership. This
reinforces the perception that women teach and men control. The
employment of women teachers is accompanied by overt and covert
discrimination in terms of promotion and tenure practices. Global patterns
also show that women teachers tend to be under represented in certain
subjects such as Mathematics and Science and concentrated in stereotyped
women’s fields, i.e. the care of young children and teaching so called girls’
subjects such as Home Economics, Languages and the Humanities.
⮚ Occupational choices are made from primary school onwards and the school
assists directly and indirectly in this process. Literature on the pattern of job
selection and career choice of adolescent girls suggests that the majority
indeed “drift into a career or job” (Dobie, 1993:149) with parents and
teachers taking a far more passive role when advising girls than when
advising boys. The career choice of girls is further complicated by issues

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 concerning the formation of the personal, social and sexual identity which
reaches a crucial phase during adolescence.

References

Gordon, R. (1995) Can Sex of Girls’ Academic

Under Achievement: The
Influence of Teachers’ Attitudes and Expectations on the
Academic Performance of Secondary School Girls, in
Occassional Paper Number 8, ZJER, UZ, Harare

rdon, R (1994) National Policies for the Education of Girls and Women in
Zimbabwe in Sutherland, M. R. and Bardoux, C. (Ed) Feminines et
Education Politiques Nationales et Variation International, University of
Laval, LABRAPS, Quebec

lliams, T (1975) Social Inequalities, Teacher Expectations and Sub Fulfilling

Prophecies; in Journal of Education Research and Perspectives, Volume 2
No. 1 University of Western Australia

rdon, R and Chimedza (1995) Access and Equity

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The Rationale

Education is a basic human right. The 1989 United Nations Convention on

the Rights of the Child re-affirmed the right of every child to education
irrespective of colour, race, creed, sex, ability, disability and socio economic
status (Gordon and Chimedza (1995).

⮚ Unfortunately, groups such as these are often denied both the right of access
to education, and equal treatment in educational institutions, which leads to
unequal educational outcomes and life chances for these groups.
⮚ Article 3 of the World Declaration of Human Rights is concerned with
universalizing access to, and promoting equity in education emphasizing that
Education For All means ensuring that particular attention is directed to the
education of the under served (Gordon and Chimedza, 1995).
⮚ As well as being a basic human right, education is a necessary condition for
the upward social mobility of disadvantaged members of society.
Knowledge gained through education is a means by which they can improve
the quality of their lives.
⮚ Equity of access to education and equal treatment in the school are essential
conditions for all forms of social equity (Gordon, 1994).
⮚ Equal educational opportunities for all maximizes the possibility of equal
educational outcomes, and thus equal opportunities for all members of
society to secure employment.

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⮚ Equality of educational opportunity is necessary if women are to become
self-sufficient producers of wealth, charity, the goodwill of individuals,
organizations and the state.

National Policies for the Education of Girls and Women in Zimbabwe

⮚ Its not possible to isolate national policies for the education of girls and
women in Zimbabwe, from socio economic policies and the economic, legal
and political statuses of women. Educational policies both prior to and since
independence have been an integral part of overall government policies, all
operating within the context of a patriarchal society.
⮚ Since independence, the stated policy of the government has been based on
the policy of the rising party, ZANU (PF). Of the fundamental human rights
and freedoms recognized by ZANU (PF), one is gender specific, i.e. the
right of women to equality which men “in all spheres of political, economic,
cultural and family life. Men and women will enjoy equal pay for equal
work”. (ZANU (PF) Manifesto, 2015).
⮚ Education is seen as a human right and necessity and an important
instrument for the achievement of equity.

Girls and Education since Independence

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⮚ Despite the tremendous increases in educational provision countrywide and
the introduction of non fee paying primary education, fewer girls than boys
attend primary school (Gordon, 1994) and worse still only 41% of secondary
school pupils are girls (Gordon, 1994).

Constraints to the Education of Girls

The issue of sexual equality of educational opportunity has of late received

some attention in Zimbabwe. In particular, emphasis to schooling for girls,
and more recently, upon the higher drop out rates for girls.

⮚ Little attention has however been given to what happens to girls in the
schools, i.e. the treatment experienced by girls within the schools. Equality
of educational opportunity involves not only equal access to schooling, but
also equal treatment of boys and girls within the school itself (Gordon,
1995).

1. To what extent and in what ways do teacher attitudes and expectations affect
the academic and social self concepts of girls, and thus their aspirations and
academic motivation?
2. How do teachers explain the poor performance of girls?
3. Do they perceive themselves and the school as contributing to the problem?

Equality of Educational Opportunity

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⮚ At Independence in 1980 the government embarked on a programme of
educational reconstruction and expansion in an effort to make access to
education a reality for all Zimbabwean children. Equality of educational
opportunity for all was a stated aim of the government and education was
perceived not only as a human right but also as an important means by
which deponents and the redress of social inequalities inherited from the
colonial period could be attained.
⮚ Yet the girl child remains disadvantaged in the Zimbabwean education
system.
⮚ Dropout rates in every cohort in Zimbabwe since 1980, as elsewhere in the
sub region (Duncan, 1989; Hyde, 1991), have been higher for girls than for
boys (Gordon, 1995). The drop out rate for girls increased particularly in the
upper levels of primary and secondary school.
⮚ In Zimbabwean secondary schools the ratio of male to female pupils is 3:1
(Gordon, 1995).
⮚ It has also been noted that girls perform more poorly than boys in all public
examinations up to form IV. The under achievement of girls is a critical
factor for their further education and training and employment opportunities.
⮚ Girls in Zimbabwe, as elsewhere in the world, particularly under achieve in
mathematics and science. As a result girls and women are under represented
in the sciences at ‘A’ level and in tertiary education.
⮚ Arguments that schools are failing to provide the equality of opportunity that
is part of their mandate could be the basis for explaining the disadvantaged
position of girls in education.
⮚ Schools are actually accused of perpetuating social inequalities from one
generation to another (Bowles, 1972). One particular component to this

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 argument is the notion that teachers engage in subtle forms of discrimination
within classrooms, and thereby, set in motion self-fulfilling prophesies.
⮚ Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) examined in depth the alleged processes of
the self-fulfilling prophecy. They found that teachers get just what they
expect from students in the way of performance in schools. If teachers
expect post performance from certain children, these children will perform
poorly in school.
⮚ The linkage of this argument to the broader issues of opportunity and the
maintenance of social un equalities across generations is fairly
straightforward. Social class and sex differences in achievement, self
esteem, aspirations and so on, are explained in terms of the relative degree of
fit between the child and the school.

How do girls (primary and secondary) socialization fit into the school
culture and the education system as a whole?

Unit 6
Redressing Gender Imbalances
By Daniel Mawere, Winfrida Matsa and Efritha Chauraya

6.0 Introduction
In this unit, we are looking at ‘redressing of gender imbalances’. Let us start
by getting the meaning of the word “redress”. What do you think is meant by
this word: redressing? You are correct! To redress is to put right a wrong or
an injustice. An imbalance is a lack of evenness; therefore a gender
imbalance is a lack of evenness in treatment of males and females.
Redressing gender imbalances therefore looks at ways in which treatment of
males and females can be created, so that equality between the two sexes is
achieved. This equality does not mean that women and men are going to be
the same in the sense of the word ‘sameness’. It is equality in the sense that
their enjoyment of rights, opportunities and life chances are not governed or
limited by whether they were born female or male. There are many ways in

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 which gender imbalances can be redressed. In this unit we are going to look
at the following key ways: enactment of gender responsive policies and
laws; creation of gender responsive environments, carrying out gender
research and gender analysis; education and empowerment programmes as
well as engagements of gender projects. Following is a brief exposition of
each of these ways.

6.1 Objectives

By the end of this module you should be able to:

● 6.1.1 Identify and explain gender responsive policies and laws.

● 6.1.2 Highlight the interrelationship between physical, social and academic

environments in creation of gender responsive environments.

● 6.1.3 Assess the extent to which gender research and gender analysis
contribute to redressing gender imbalances.

● Examine the extent to which education and empowerment programmes

contribute to redressing gender imbalances.

● Evaluate the role of gender projects in bringing about a gender equal society.

Enactment of gender responsive policies

Kabeer (1992) quoted in March, Smyth and Mukhopadhyay (1999:20-21)

makes a gender classification of policies as follows:
● Gender blind policies which recognize no distinction between the sexes.
Such policies make assumptions, which lead to a bias in favour of existing
gender relations. In view of this therefore such policies tend to exclude
women.

● Gender-aware policies recognize that both women and men are development
actors. How ever the nature of women’s involvement is determined by
gender relations which make their involvement different and unequal. As a
result women may have different needs, interests and priorities which may
conflict with those of men at times. Within gender- aware policies, Kabeer

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 further distinguishes between gender-neutral, gender-specific and gender
redistributive policies.

* Gender-neutral policies use the knowledge of gender differences in a

given society to overcome bias in development interventions, in order to
ensure that interventions target and benefit both sexes effectively to meet
their practical needs. Gender-neutral policies work within the existing
gender division of resources and responsibilities.

* Gender-specific policies use the knowledge of gender differences in a

given context to respond to the practical needs of women or men; they work
within the existing gender division of resources and responsibilities.

* Gender-redistributive policies are intended to transform existing

distributions of power and resources to create a more balanced relationship
between women and men, touching on strategic gender interests. They may
target both sexes, or women or men separately.

In the context of Zimbabwe, a National Gender Policy (NGP) was

introduced to show the country’s commitment to promote gender equality
and equity. The policy provides guidelines and institutional framework to
engender all sectoral policies, programmes, projects and activities at all
levels of society and economy.

Affirmative Action Policies are made to allow females to enter or qualify for
certain jobs or education opportunities with lower qualifications. Affirmative
Action means positive steps taken to increase the representation of women
and minorities in areas of employment, education and business from which
they have been historically excluded. Affirmative Action involves
preferential selection on the basis of race, gender or ethnicity. An example is
when a university guides the recruitment procedures by stating that at least
50% of the admitted students should be female. Another Affirmative Action
Policy is the Midlands State University Bridging Programme for girls
aspiring to embark on Mathematics and Science related degree programmes.

Activity 6.1
1. Make a survey of gender specific policies that have been introduced in your
country.
2. Give explanations to each of the policies and discuss the extent to which
each of the policies attempt to redress gender imbalances in your country.

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 Gender imbalances and legal redress:

This section is linked to UNIT 8 especially section 8.5. Here we are looking
at how the law can help to redress gender imbalances. We are turning to the
law for removal of barriers that put men and women in differential positions.
The law is also being looked at using the gender lens to see if it has biases
that lead to differential treatment of men and women. The major aim of
doing this is to enable women and men to exercise and enjoy their rights to
the full.
The legal redress of gender imbalances involves the following:
● Enactment of gender equality act.

● Gender audit and review of all legislation to make it gender sensitive and
responsive.

● Gender training for state administrators and law enforcing agents

● Legal literacy.

● Legal education and sensitization.

● Community gender and human rights training.

For a successful legal redress of gender imbalances there is need for a

thorough gender analysis of the law and of the issues concerned. This
analysis will show where the problem lies. The problem may be on the
implementation and meaning of the law, knowledge of the law among other
issues. When these factors are addressed it is hoped that the law will be
doing its best to promote gender equality. This analysis will also enable us to
group laws as either progressive or retrogressive.
Retrogressive Laws are against gender equality. They do not promote equal
treatment of men and women before the law. At times they even worsen the
condition of the disadvantaged sex in a particular context. For more
information on retrogressive laws see unit 8 (8.2 and 8.3).
Progressive Laws promote gender equality. They promote the rights of all
sexes, regardless of race colour, sex, or belief.

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 Activity 6. 2
● How is legal education and sensitization done in your community?

● To what extent are these programmes changing gender relations in your

community?

● Make a gender analysis of progressive and retrogressive laws obtaining in

your country.

Creation of gender responsive environments

Gender responsive environments respect human rights and ensure that issues
of gender equality and equity are promoted. A gender responsive
environment is one in which both males and females are empowered to
achieve their highest possible potential. The Forum for African Women
Educationists has referred to these environments as Centres of Excellence
(COE). The focus in creating gender responsive environments is on physical,
academic and social environments in the context of the school.
● The Physical Environment refers to the infrastructure , for example, in a
school setting, this includes , school buildings, fences, toilets, hostels, health
facilities, library, laboratories, amenities for sports, water, electricity and
sanitation. Adequate, secure and gender appropriate infrastructure is
emphasized. This is achievable when parents, the community, students and
teachers mobilize adequate resources.

● The Academic Environment refers to:

* Students who are empowered, good academic performance, bursaries for

needy students, access to carrier guidance and students who are well
grounded in democratic practice.
* Teachers who are gender responsive, empowered, innovative and creative,
adhering to the teachers’ code of conduct and ethics.
* Adequate and gender responsive teaching and learning materials.
* School Management which is gender responsive and championing the
transformation of gender responsiveness.

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* The Social Environment refers to teacher- student, student-student, teacher-
teacher, boy-girl, girl-boy, boy-boy, girl-girl, school management-teacher
relationships which should be gender responsive.

Activity 6.3
● Suggest how you can make your institution an environment in which both
males and females are empowered to achieve their highest possible
potential?
● What challenges, do you think, are likely to be faced in striving to achieve
this goal?

Gender Analysis

We looked at gender analysis in unit 4 where we learnt that gender analysis

examines the relationships between women and men. It examines their roles,
their access to and control of resources and the constraints they face relative
to each other. As a strategy to redress gender imbalances, gender analysis
should be integrated in carrying out needs assessment or situational analysis
to ensure that gender-based injustices and inequalities are not exacerbated by
likelihood interventions. Gender analysis starts with the smallest unit, that is,
the household to understand how each family member participates, what role
they play and what they need in order to improve their well being, for
example, one could ask what factors affect access to services. Who obtains
resources? Who decides on the use of resources? Through gender analysis
we get an insight into cultural understanding of the different roles of men
and women. For example a widow or single mother as ‘head of household’
has serious implications in terms of access and control to goods and
services. The analysis of relations and roles can help us to identify
vulnerabilities, potentials for backlash and also solutions to critical issues in
a bid to promote greater equality and justice in gender relations.

Gender Research

Gender Research is another way of redressing gender imbalance, intended to

empower students with skills and knowledge of investigating gender related
problems, issues and concerns in society. Gender responsive research probes
into the gender dimension of constraints at all levels of the educational
process (policy, community, household, school and classroom levels).

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 Gender research explores problems that are researchable such as: Causes of
poor performance, school drop out, classroom participation, teachers,
attitudes and skills in handling gender related issues and problems in the
classroom. The knowledge so gained will enable students to use gender
responsive research as a strategy to solve gender related problems they come
across in their own endeavours. In addition it will enable them to
recommend strategies that will address the constraints which hinder girls and
some boys from enrolling, performing, staying and transiting to higher levels
of learning.

Activity 6.4
● Carry out a mini-gender research on any one of the following areas:
a) Causes of poor performance amongst female students in your institution.
b) High school drop out rate among girls/boys
c) Low class participation among boys/girls.
d) Teacher/Lecturer attitudes and skills in handling gender related issues and
problems in the classroom/lecture room.
● From your findings make recommendations to solve the gender related
problem you have researched on.

Education and Empowerment programmes

Education and empowerment programmes go a long way into redressing

gender imbalances. Most obstacles in girls’ social and academic
development are rooted in the culture of silence that is instilled in girls’
socialization process. Hence these disempowered girls see those obstacles as
God given and they can not be challenged. However, boys also need to be
empowered in order to accept gender equality and be able to cope with
empowered girls. In most circumstances, it is taken for granted that boys are
born empowered but the truth is the opposite. For a detailed understanding
of how education and empowerment programmes bring about gender
balance we refer you to Unit 7.

Engagements of gender projects

Gender projects are support programmes for the disadvantaged males and
females. They normally offer economic support in the form of special
tuition, legal support as well as socio-political support. How ever they may
also be in the form of general support, for example, food schemes. These

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 projects normally target groups rather than individuals, as beneficiaries, note
they are of interest to gender because, through benefitting say all orphans,
they will be benefitting say the girl child orphan who has been the object of
discrimination historically. With most care-taker families, in times of
shortages and a choice is made on who between the girl child and the boy
child to pull out of school, research has shown that it is the girl child who
normally enters the school last and is the first to leave school. In other
cultures, girls feed after boys have fed. In this way the education of and
general welfare of girls and women has always been compromised. These
projects therefore protect human rights and promote equality through
provision of assistance to the vulnerable groups. Following are a few
examples of gender projects:
● The Zimbabwe Basic Assistance Module(BEAM) which offers financial
support to orphans;

● The Zimbabwe legal Foundation which offers free legal support to males
and females who do not have the capacity to hire a lawyer to represent them
in times of need;

● The Musasa Project Centre which offers free socio-political support to the
males and females through offering gender education, gender empowerment
and free counseling services to affected males and females especially when
it concerns domestic violence and other forms of gender based violence.

● Men’s Forum for Gender (MFG) (Padare) which is a gender organisation

formed by a group of men to campaign against Domestic Violence. In
Zimbabwe it is known as Padare. It has challenged fellow men to contribute
towards national development by getting involved in gender issues. The
group, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe and perhaps in the sub-region has
embarked on activities to promote gender sensitive attitudes and behaviour.
The organization is concerned with the problem of gender inequality as a
moral and political challenge. Society is viewed as continuing to promote a
culture and attitudes based on domination and exploitation of women by
men. These need to be constructed. Source: Lopi, B. (1998) for SARDC in
Beyond Inequalities : Women in Zimbabwe ZWRCN.

● Other gender projects include; Forum for Gender, Zimbabwe National

Platform for Action, Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network,

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 National Aids Council, Women Leadership and Governance Institute,
SHAPE Zimbabwe, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), Young Women
Christian Organisation (YWCO), Young Men Christian Organisation and
Girl-Child Network, among others.

Activity 6.5

● What gender related projects are being carried out in your country?

● To what extent do these projects help in redressing gender balances in your

country?

Conclusion

Redressing gender imbalances should be conceptualized as a process and not

an end in itself. Although efforts are being made to address the issue,
resistance, negative attitudes, poor funding, inadequate resources,
misconceptions of gender issues and many other factors hamper progress. If
the intention is to achieve gender equity and equality, then there is need to
seriously consider alternative ways of solving the problem. All stakeholders
and interested parties should continuously review their approaches to the
problem.

References

March, C., Smyth, I. and Mukhopadhyay, M. (1999). A Guide T o Gender

Analysis Frameworks. Oxford, Oxfam.

Beyond Inequalities: Women in Zimbabwe

128
Forum for African Women Educationalists (2005). Introduction to Gender
Studies: A Teaching Module for Student Teachers. Gweru. Midlands State
University.

Lopi, B. (1998) for SARDC in Beyond Inequalities: Women in Zimbabwe

ZWRCN.

Zimbabwe National Gender Policy (2004) Government Printers, Harare

UNIT 7
Gender Empowerment
By
Manuku Mukoni and Charles Chikunda

7.0 Introduction

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 In Unit 6 we learnt about gender issues that act as constraints to gender
equality. In this unit we will explore in detail the concept of gender
empowerment which is one of the strategies that can be used to redress the
imbalances caused by these issues. For details see Unit 8. In this unit focus
will be on the various types of empowerment, models of empowerment as
well as strategies of empowerment.

7.1 Unit Objectives

By the end of this unit you should be able to
● Define empowerment as it applies to men and women
● Identify the various types of empowerment
● Describe the models/ frameworks of empowerment
● Examine the various approaches to collective empowerment
● Recognize an empowered man and an empowered woman.

7.2 Understanding Power

To understand the term empowerment we need to analyze the idea of
‘Power’ which is the root of the term empowerment. For this purpose we
need to understand the various forms in which power is interpreted, because
power means different things to different people. Therefore it is important
for us to explore the perceptions of power

Albert (1985 :12) define power as the capability of human beings to

organize or manipulate their environment ( including other human beings,
their thoughts, motivation, needs and desires as well as their creations and
artefacts) for human end. Adair and Howl (1989:20) define power as the
ability to do what one chooses. Power is the ability to make others do what
we want regardless of their own wishes or interests ( Weber in Czuba 2003 :
2) Traditional social sciences emphasize power as influence and control
often treating power as a commodity or a structure divorced from human
action (Lipps, 1991). Conceived in this way power can be viewed as
unchangeable or unchanging.

If we look at Albert (1985), Adair and Howl (1989) as well as Weber’s

definition of power. -They give us a key word beyond this limitation by
recognizing that power exists within the context of relationship between
people or things. They show that power does not exist in isolation nor is it
inherent in an individual. By implication this shows us that since power is
created in relationships then power and power relationships can change

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 making empowerment as a process of change possible. A brief activity
makes the importance of this discussion clear

Activity 7.1
1. List three words that immediately come to your mind when you hear the
word power?
2. Have you ever felt powerful? Was it at someone’s expense? Was it with
someone else?
3. How can you tell you have power?
4. What are the characteristics of lack of power?
5. How is power exercised, maintained, perpetuated and distributed?

For most people words that come to mind when we think about power often
revolve around control and domination. Focusing on these aspects of power
limit our ability to understand and define empowerment while to other
people power is a zero sum it is something you get at the expense of others.
Such an understanding of power cuts most of us off from power. A zero sum
conception of power means that power will remain in the hands of the
powerful unless they give it up, for example men will not voluntarily
relinquish that patriarchal power which gives them privilege over women
and which give them less work than women but a larger share of the
rewards. Although this is certainly one way that power is experienced, it
neglects the way power is experienced in most interactions, power can be
understood as operating in a number of different ways.

7.2.1 Forms of Power

There are various forms of power. Do activity 7.2 below to brainstorm on
forms of power

Activity 7.2
1. What do you understand by
(a) Economic power
(b) Political power
(c) Social power
(d) Inter-person

The activity above on power and the definition of power by Weber (1946),
Albert (1985), Adair and Howl (1989) in section 7.2, shows that power

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 exists within the context of a relationship between people or things. Hence
we have various forms of power as discussed below:
Power over- this form of power involves an either/ or relationship of
domination / subordination.
● This is whereby an individual or a group in authority uses their power to
make decision and control others
● .It is when one uses power to get another person or group of people to do
what they do not want.
● This form of power is based on socially sanctioned threats of violence and
intimidation
● It requires constant vigilance to remain and it invites active and passive
resistance.
● .In this case power is finite the more power one has the less the others have
● .It is coercive
● E.g. most man has power over woman. If a woman makes more money or
attaints a position of power, violence can result.

Power with –relates to the collective strength of people working together.

Some researchers and practitioners call this aspect of power ‘relational
power’ (Loppe and Du Bois 1994) “generative power ‘’ (Korten, 1987),
“Integrative power ‘’ (Kreisberg .1992)
● This is the type of power that is characterized by collaboration, sharing and
mutuality (Kreisberg, 1992)
● It involves people organizing with a common purpose or common
understanding to achieve collective goals
● It is by coming together and sharing each other mutual support that we are
in a position to challenge the zero type of power.
● It acknowledges the fact that power multiples with individual talents and
knowledge
● It is the form of power that lies behind the common sayings such as ‘united
we stand divided we fall’ ‘one for all and all for one’’
● This form of power means that gaining power actually strengthens the
power of others rather than diminishing it such as occurs with domination
power.

Power to – This form of power relates to having decision making authority,

power to solve problems and being creative and enabling
● It refers to the potential in every human being to take action in their own
life and the world

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● It is based on authority and mutual support and, it opens possibilities for
joint action
● It refers to potentially transformative power which is in every person which
enables him/ her to take control of his / her life.

Power within- refers to self confidence, self awareness and assertiveness

● It relates to how an individual can recognize through analyzing own
experience, how power operates in one’s life and gain the confidence to act,
to influence and change this (Williams et al 1994)
● It refers to creative, spiritual and emotional strength that resides within each
person
● It comes from self esteem, self acceptance, self knowledge and self respect.
● It stems from the belief that ‘I am a human being and I am worthy’

Activity 7.3
1. What form of power do you think the following people have
(a) Conservative bosses
(b) Abusive husbands
(c) Men over women
2 What is the source of their power?

Kreisberg (1992: 57) suggests that power defined as the capacity to

implement is broad enough to allow power to mean domination, authority
influence and shared power or power with. It is this definition of power as it
occurs in relationship that gives us the possibility of empowerment.
Empowerment therefore involves the redistribution of power and this power
cannot be given it has to be taken (Longwe, 2001, Kabeer in March et al
1997)
7.3 Understanding empowerment
Empowerment is a construct shared by many disciplines and arenas:
community development psychology, education, economics and studies of
social movements and organizations among other. As a multidimensional
concept it had wide variations and how it is understood varies among these
perspectives. To demystify the concept we need to understand the term
broadly:-
● Empowerment refers to the creation and expansion of one’s knowledge,
skills, decision making and other power bases giving them the capacity and
capability to exercise influence and leadership on their own ( Zimbabwe
National Gender policy 2004: 12)

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● Empowerment is a process whereby individuals who are marginalized
individually or collectively become aware of how power structures,
processes and relations operate in their lives and gain the confidence and
strength to challenge the resulting gender inequalities ( Hannan ,2003)
McWhirter (1991) in Eade (1999) defines empowerment as a process by
which people organization or groups who are powerless.
(a) Become aware of the power dynamics at work in their life contexts and
them
(b) Develop the skills and capacity for gaining some reasonable control over
their lives.
(c) Exercise this control without infringing upon the rights of others and
(d) Support the empowerment of others.
From these broad definitions of empowerment we can deduce that
empowerment is essentially a process which covers the following basic
aspects:
● Actions involved in confronting and changing unequal power relations
● Acquiring the capacity (psychological readiness, social analysis,
organizational skills) and need to take action.
● It has both individual and collective dimensions.

Table: 1 What is empowerment then?

-In brief empowerment is about
Bringing people who are outside the decision making process into it
Individuals being able to maximize the opportunities available to them without or
despite constraints of structure and state
Access to intangible decision making process
Having power to exercise control over all aspects of your life, being in a position
to determine or decide their own destiny.
An activity on freedom
Having empowerment belowexpression,
of conscience, will helpindependent
elucidate the concept
judgment andof
self reliance
Being able
empowerment furtherto maximize the opportunities available to one without constraints
Having the right to make choices
Having education, information, authority and power in decision making on issues
affecting one and others.
Undoing negative social constructions so that one can come to see self as having
the capacity and the right to act and influence decisions.
Acting collectively in order to change or control
Challenging the basic assumption about power, helping achieving and succeeding

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 Activity 7.4
Which statements below define empowerment?
1. Being able to engage in decisions on budget allocations
2. Women’s improved socio- economic status
3. Women’s improved levels of literacy or education
4. Taking account of gender differentials
5. Being consulted during the preparation of the poverty reduction support
project
6. Giving a fair hearing to a women in a public meeting comprising of men and
women
7. Elimination of discriminatory legislation
8. Equality in the gender division of labor
9. Women’s increased ownership of capital
10.Formation of unions for immigrant workers which allow them to negotiate
working conditions with employees
11.A battered woman is freed from the threat of violence and becomes able to
make decisions about her life

Statement 2, 3,4,7,8 and 9 above may contribute to the process of

empowerment or may result from the process of empowerment they cannot
define what is empowerment for example women’s increased levels of
literacy or education provided by an intervention does not address the
underlying patterns of discrimination which generally prevent woman from
obtaining education and which generally maintains their subordination and
oppression. The forms of power in section 7.2.1 revealed that power must be
understood as working at different levels including institutional household
and individual, thus giving rise to three dimension of empowerment as
illustrated below.

7.4 The three dimensions of empowerment

Empowerment has three dimensions as shown below

Close relations
Personal
Adapted from Rowlands, 1997

Collective
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 7.4.1 Personal empowerment
● Is where empowerment is about developing a sense of self and individual
confidence and capacity, undoing the effects of internalized oppression
● It is based on the assumptions that

(i) People have inherent ability and power to evolve and progress
(ii) True power cannot be best owned but it comes from within
● It involves developing confidence in oneself, self esteem and a sense of
agency
● It is all about realising the potential in oneself to perform and increase output
● It is being an individual who can interact with own surrounding and obtain
results
● It is all about undoing the effects of internalized oppression and
subordination

It leads to positive self concept, high self esteem, confidence, and self-
development, decision making ability to interact outside the home, breaking
criticism and developing communication skills

Sources of personal disempowerment

● Lack of exposure and encouragement
● Dependency an external motivation
● Self put downs, negative inner dialogue
● Lack of confidence
● Failure to take criticism
● Procrastination
● Not choosing one’s battles

Steps to self personal empowerment

● Build self confidence
● Attitudinal tune up – think of the positive do not always put yourself down
● Develop communication skills – seek to understand and be understood.
Increase the ability to formulate and express opinions
● Teach and practice forgiveness, however begin with forgiving yourself for
all the mistakes you have done
● Allow yourself and others to say ‘NO’
● Break the criticism pattern, focus only on the criticism that builds you up
● Understand the situation and get the power through other systems

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● Acquiring certain skills that you lack so that you become more efficient
● Increase your ability to interact outside the home
● Participate in and influence areas of activity

Table 2 key elements in personal empowerment

__ in brief, the key elements to personal empowerment includes
Self awareness (who are you?)
7.4.2 Close Relationship
Making decisions about issues that affect you, being in control
This type toofshare
Ability empowerment entails
power as opposed to the ability
wielding to negotiate
power over othersand influence the
nature of a development
Personal relationship and decisions made within it. For example husband/
wife relationship, parents / child and boyfriend/ girlfriend etc – individuals
Independence
work togethera to
Developing positive
achieveself aimage
more positive impact.
Having self esteem and confidence

7.4.3 Collective Empowerment

Individuals’ abilities to negotiate communicate and defend their rights
It builds on individual empowerment. To achieve collective empowerment
individuals must have personal empowerment individual should be able to
work together to achieve greater impact in locality or surrounding than what
one person could have achieved for example pressure groups such as trade
unions, workers committees, Affirmative Action Group (AAG) in
Zimbabwe, Women and Gender (WAG) in Zimbabwe It involves groups
because it is through involvement in groups that people most often begin to
develop their awareness. Thus empowerment occurs in a chain.

7.5 Chain of Empowerment

Empowerment occurs at various levels such as individual, group and
community ,hence to achieve group or community empowerment,
empowerment should start at the personal level since without empowerment
at personal level it is very hard for individuals to be active collectively.
Because to have a sense of empowerment in relation to other people is
associated with and to a large extent, dependent upon self confidence, self
esteem and sense of agency. It also depends on the individual’s ability to
negotiate, communicate and defend his or her rights.

Personal Relational
Empowerment empowerment

137 empowerment
Collective
 7.6 Understanding Gender Empowerment

Society instills a culture of silence in women during the socialization

process hence these disempowered woman see these obstacles as God given
and they cannot be challenged. Empowerment programmes hence think only
women need to be empowered to challenge these internalized views.
However men need also need to be empowered in order to accept gender
equality and be able to cope with empowered women. In most situations it is
taken for granted that men are born empowered hence they are always
deprived opportunities to acquire gender responsive empowerment skills

7.6.1 Sources of disempowerment of women

● Culture, social and physical conditions in which women live and the gender
role to which they are expected to conform.
● Myths, proverbs, stories , stereotypes and language
● Economic – most women do not have access and control over resources
● Political- few woman participate in decision making yet it is within the
public space that decision that affect them are made.
● Elements of oppression under which women live both as female and as poor
people
● Culture of machismo, alcohol consumption and other vices and the among
culture of violence
● Legislation e.g. in Zimbabwe customary law is given precedence in some
areas

138
 6.2 Effects of lack of empowerment

Women Men
● Not speaking out ● Uses force instead of negotiating
● Being harassed including ● Shout out instead of speaking out or
sexual harassment communicating
● Risk of being HIV infected ● Being sexual harassed by other men/
● Lack of self confidence older women
● Low self esteem ● Become violent and aggressive
● Negative self concept ● Failure to share their problems and
● Dependent feelings
● Passive ● Harassing women
● Shy ● Risk of being infected with HIV
● Inferiority ● Dependent
● Confusion ● Low self esteem ( inferiority)
● Unwanted pregnancy ● Dominance / superiority
● Confusion
● Alcoholism
● Clumsiness’
● Alienation/isolation

From the effects of lack of empowerment in man and women discussed

above. It becomes clear that both man and women need empowerment hence
we talk of gender empowerment.
Table 3 What is gender empowerment then?
Is the process of enabling women and men to take an equal place and to participate
equally in the development process
It entails recognizing one’s strength and exploding sexist misconception, challenging
socialization ideas that breed the feeling of inferiority and superiority attitudes among
women and men respectively
It is a process through which men and women increase their capacity to shape their
own lives and environment
It also calls for the transformation of the structures and practices in the institutes to
those that does not reinforce or perpetuate gender discrimination and social inequality
It is an evolvement in men and women’s self awareness, stratus and efficiency in
social interaction giving
7.6.3 Understanding them increased
women’s opportunity to control their lives
empowerment
It gives men and women the power
Women’s empowerment is enabling women to take an equal place with men
To make decision
and toHave
participate equally
their voices heardin the development process in order to achieve
controlPutover theonfactors
things of production on an equal basis with men (Longwe,
the agenda
2001) Negotiate on something that is not negotiable
5. Challenge past customs

139
 * Women Empowerment means
● Having control or gaining further control
● Being able to define and create from a women’s perspective
● Being able to influence social choices and decisions affecting the whole
society
● Being recognized and accepted as equal citizens
● Being able to make a contribution at all levels of society and not just in the
home
● It is having one’s contribution recognized and valued
● Having a say and being listened to
Thus empowerment for women brings to the process of empowerment an
existing experience and history, as women bring to the process of
empowerment societal values stereotype, myths and beliefs which for a long
time have made women accept inferiority. Women empowerment involves
the undoing of internalized oppression and the rejection of the definition of
femininity

7.6.4 Understanding men’s empowerment

Men’s empowerment is the ability to understand and accept gender equality.
It is the liberation of men from false value systems and ideologies of
oppression leading to a situation where men become wholly regardless of
gender and use their fullest potential to construct a more human society for
all.

From the above definition of gender empowerment and our previous

discussions it s evident that the idea of power is at the core of empowerment.
(Hannan,2003,Williams,1994,Kabeer,2003)
According to Czuba (2003) the possibility of empowerment depends on two
things first empowerment requires that power can change. If power cannot
change. If it is inherent in positions or people then empowerment is not
possible nor is empowerment conceivable in any meaningful way. In other
words if power can change then empowerment is possible. Secondly the
concept of empowerment depends upon the idea that power can expand.
Thus empowerment is more than simply opening up access to decision
making it must also include the process that lead people to perceive
themselves as able and entitled to occupy that decision making space and so
overlaps with the categories of ‘power to’ and ‘power within’

140
 Empowerment therefore comes from within. It involves individuals
themselves setting the agenda and managing the pace of change. Outsiders
such as development cooperation agencies non governmental agencies can
only play an important facilitating role through use of established
frameworks or models.(Kabeer,2003)

7.7 Model / Framework of Empowerment

A framework is a system of ideas or conceptual structures that help us see
the social world, understand it, explain it and change it (Wallace and March
1991)
When applied to empowerment an empowerment framework or model
therefore is a systematic way of examining how the empowerment process
can be achieved in this section the Sarah Longwe empowerment framework
and the Tuseme model of empowerment will be discussed

7.7.1 Sarah Longwe empowerment framework

It is also known as the women empowerment framework. Though a feminist
model it can be applied to empowerment. For details see unit 4
The framework is used as an empowerment model as well as a gender
analysis framework see unit 4. It comprises of two tools
1. women’s empowerment tool 1: levels of equality
2. women’s empowerment tool 2: levels of recognition
This framework / model is based on the notion of five different levels of
equality. as discussed in unit 4 The extent to which these are present in any
area of social or economic life determine the level of empowerment as
illustrated in the diagram below

Control
Participation
Conscientisation Increased equality increased
Access
empowerment
Welfare

These levels of equality are hierarchal. If a development intervention focuses

on the higher levels, there is greater likelihood that women and men’s
empowerment will be increased by the intervention than if a project focuses
on lower levels If the intervention concentrator only on welfare, it is unlikely

141
that women and men will find it empowering. For example equal
participation in decision making process about certain resources is more
important in achieving women and men’s empowerment than equal access to
resources. We need to note that although the levels, of empowerment are
hierarchal, they are not really a linear progression as discussed in unit 4 but
rather circular.

The Empowerment Cycle

Welfare

Control

Empowerment
Access

Mobilization

Conscientisation

Adapted from Longwe (2001)

The achievement of women’s increased control leads into better access to

resources and therefore improves socio- economic status. The process of
empowerment is also self propelling and self reinforcing that is issues at one
level provides a better basis for success at other levels. It is therefore a
synergic process The levels of the framework are therefore not intended to
be interpreted as steps in a linear sequence but rather as interrelated elements
in a cycle or spiral of self reinforcing process Do activity 7.5 below to
enhance your understanding of this model

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 Activity 7 .5
Recent attempts by women activists to pass legislation on granting married
women a large share of their husband’s household property in Uganda has
met with open objection from president Museveni, and woman activists
threatened for the first time to lobby women against voting for the
president in the next election. Women activists argued that if women did
gain these rights this would not only significantly promote their own
opportunities for action, it would also limit men’s opportunities to acquire
several wives and to exercise control over them.
How would Ugandan women use the Sara Longwe empowerment
framework to solve this problem?

7.7.2 Tuseme Model of empowerment

‘Tuseme’ is a Swahili word that means let us speak out
Origins
The model was initiated in Tanzania in 1996 by FAWE to empower boys and
girls

Applicability
The model can be used in an academic institution to empower boys and girls
so that they can overcome problems that hinder their academic and social
development

The Tuseme model of empowerment is carried out in nine stages. It involves

the entire school community (teachers, workers and students) as participants
in the activities of the difference stages (FAWE, 2004)

Stage 1 Preliminaries
Facilitators discuss with the school authority about the intention to carry out
a Tuseme process. They inform the school community about the intention
and dates
This is done to ensure that the school authority and community are ready for
process
Stage 2: Familiarization
The purpose of this stage is to have a better understanding of the working
environment and to get preliminary information on the subject matter. To
achieve this facilitators introduce Tuseme to the relevant authorities in order
to familiarize with the social set up of the school community- these are

143
major groups that constitute the school community, relationship with the
neighborhood.
The physical set up of the school- boundaries, library, facilities, Sports
ground to determine whether they are adequate or not.
The academic performance of the school in general and the cohort groups in
particular.

Stage 3: Data Collection

This is done to get information on the issue of concern that impedes social
and academic development of boys and girls. Participant are divided into
small research teams and assigned to carry out interviews with a certain
number of community members about issues related to the goals and
objectives of Tuseme, its strengths and constraints. The teams are asked to
submit their findings in writing.

Stage 4 Data Analysis

This is done to get a deeper understanding of issues as well as to acquire
skills in analyzing issues. It is also done to get a better understanding of the
community’s potential in solving some of the issues. Data analysis process is
undertaken as follows.
1 List all the findings
2 Cluster / group the findings leaving out the findings / issues that are not
related to the topic.
3 Verify the authenticity of the findings
4 Prioritize the finding in the order of urgency
5 Classify the findings according to their similarities and differences
(clustering and collapsing)
6 Find out root causes of the findings
7 Find possible solutions to the problem
8 Identify responsible people or parties to help solve different problems.

Stage 5 Theatre Creation

Discuss in groups which issues from the data analysis you want to include in
your performance. Select forms of arts which you are competent and
comfortable to use. Create you performance in such a way that it can
provoke discussion. Prepare a Joker (one, who leads the post performance
discussion). Organize the performances for the stage presentation. Ensure
that costumes, pups and scenery are designed and are available

144
 NB all cohort members should participate in theatre creation

Stage 6 Performance
Discuss with the participants and the school administration about the
possible day and time to do the performance .Make sure that the entire
community is invited to the performance

Stage 7 Post Performance Discussions

Make sure the Joker involves all stakeholders in the discussion
Joker should avoid answering but challenging the audience to answer the
questions.
The joker should make sure that all issues are discussed thoroughly

Stage 8 Action Plan

Carry out this exercise either immediately after the performance or the
following day.
It usually involves the Tuseme cohort group although it is also possible to do
it with the entire school community. Whatever the case the action plan
should be endorsed by the school administration for it to be effected. The
exercise is done on a chart which indicates the following.
1. The problem
2. Root causes
3. Solution
4. Activities
5. Time frame
6. Responsible person /part
7. Resources / budget
8. Indicator

Stage 9 Creation of Tuseme Club

These are a functioning student based management system formed in the
school
They are established in order to encourage students to speak out as a way of
empowering them. Elections should be held to nominate office, bearers.
They provide a forum for students to discuss their academic and social
problems critically. The main functions of the Tuseme club is to.
● Help each other in academic matters through group discussion, debates,
individual consultations and sharing learning material

145
● Link students ( Tuseme club members) with teachers and the school
administration
● Reinforce discipline amongst club members
● Speak out about day to day problems arising in the schools
● Provide peer support, guidance and counseling.
● Access role models
● Share experience with students from other school
● Produce material for use in the Tuseme club e.g. newsletters , magazines
● Design annual action plans at the school level
● Use theatre for development as a tool for research, empowerment and
participatory planning
● Develop leadership qualities among Tuseme students

Strengths of the Model

● It uses theatre for development approach, an approach that makes sure that
as many stakeholders as possible are involved as central participants in the
process
● It always guarantees democratic and active participation of all the
stakeholders at the school
● Provides life skills through out its implementation that empower girls and
boys at the individual level e.g. it provides skills for speaking out,
assertiveness, leadership, decision making and so on

Limitations of the model

● Only applicable to a learning / academic environment
Let’s do activity 7.6 below to enhance our understanding of this model

Activity 7.6
1. What do you consider to be the school’s
(a) Academic Environment?
(b) Physical Environment?
(c) Social Environment/

2. In what ways does the above environment hinder the social and
academic development of boys and girls?
3. Conduct a Tuseme process in your institute to identify the academic,
physical and social constraints that impede your academic and social
development in the institute

146
The physical environment generally refers to the infrastructure of the school
which includes such things as building, the compound of the school, toilets,
water, power supply boarding facilities, first aid and medical facilities,
amenities for games and sports, laboratory and library. Research has
demonstrated that inadequate or poor physical facilities adversely affect the
quality of education. It has also been proven that in such environments the
girl child always comes off the worse because of the tendency has been that
the poorer the physical facilities the less gender responsive they are. The
special needs of the girl child especially at puberty tend to get ignored

Academic environment refers to the curriculum content and its relevance,

the teachers and their attitudes, the school management system, teaching
methodologies and approaches, teacher/ student interaction, the students and
their attitudes, the teaching and learning material. The teaching environment
if not gender responsive can lead to poor academic performance and output

The social environment refers mainly to the community and cultural

surroundings of the school. It normally includes parents and other relatives
of the girls, the district commissioner, village leader the chiefs and assistant
chiefs, local religious leaders, local educational leaders, other stakeholders
as well as other residents of the area near and around the school, Research
has shown that cultural practices such as the female genital cutting, early
marriages, improper attitudes and the economic status of the community are
factors that influence girls enrolment and retention in school. On a more
global scale, the country’s gender polices’ are an important part of the social
environment

7.8 General strategies of empowerment

According to Homelink (1994: 33) empowerment can be the outcome of an
intentional strategy which is either initiated externally by empowerment
agents or solicited by disempowerment people. Whilst its acknowledges that
empowerment is a personal thing since true power cannot be bestowed it
should be noted that some people can act as agents of empowerment by
providing access to a new body of ideas and information that can not only
change a person’s consciousness and self image but also motivates one to
act. Empowerment by external agents will therefore involve:
* Awareness-raising
* Building of self confidence

147
 * Expansion of choices
* Involvement in decision making
* Increased access and control (Hannan, 2003)

Thus in the long term empowerment will result in :

● Changing consciousness and attitudes
● Identification of areas needing change.
● Developing strategies and actions to be taken
● Monitoring these actions and outcomes

To achieve all these outcomes the following strategies of empowerment can

be employed see also unit 9

● Education- It helps to expand human capability such as being able to read

and write and gain knowledge and skills
● Networking See unit 4
● Participation See unit 4
● Mobilization -This involves coming together as a group and demand space
as well as change. e.g. women’s support groups in Zimbabwe for details see
unit 4
● Capacity building see unit 9
● Sensitization see unit 9
● Public awareness campaigns see unit 9
● Legal instruments See unit 8 and 9
● Aid related projects e.g. income generating projects see unit 9
● Policies See unit 9
● Affirmative action to increase participation See unit 9

7.9 manifestations of empowered women and men

7.9.1 Making the modern women

The ‘ disempowered ‘women ‘ Empowermen “The empowered women’’

t process
The rational mind
● without a plan ● organized
● Ignorant ● knowledgeable
● Emotional ● analytical
● Fatalistic ● vision for the future

148
● Caught up in own emotions ● able to solve problems
● Does what she has always done ● innovative
● Dreamer ● realistic
● The autonomous self
● Insecure ● self confident
● Self effacing ● self aware
● Relies on others ● autonomous
● Externally driven ● self determined
● Recipient of decisions ● decision maker
● Lack of shame ● sense of dignity
● Dependent ● independent
● Childish ● responsible
● Can’t stand up for herself ● assertive
● Does not know what to say ● strong negotiating skills
● Low self esteem ● high self esteem
● Only looks pretty in public ● involved with public life
● The disciplined self
● No control over own body ● plan’s family size
● Accept drinking / drinks herself ● objects to alcoholism
● Dirty ● hygienic / clean
● Bad mother / wife ● good mother / wife
● Victim of diseases ● healthy family
● Control over time and space
future orientate
● Static ● mobile
● Lazy ● hardworking
● Squanders resources/ consumes ● investor
● No particular effort to educate ● sends children to school
children
● Doesn’t know how to talk ● articulate
● Universalism
● Stuck in traditional peer group
● Doesn’t vote ● group member
● Doesn’t feel entitled to anything ● involved with public life
● Transactions medicated by ● aware of her rights
personal ties ● transact successfully using
● Passive money
● active

149
Adapted from Fiedrich and Jellema, 2003

7.9. 2 Making the Modern Man

“Disempowered man” Empowerment “Empowered man”

● Uses force / he is
aggressive and violent
● shout instead of speaking
out
● dependent
● alienation / isolation
● dominance/ superiority
● low self- esteem
process ● Does not use force but
negotiates.
● communicates instead of
shouting out
● independent
● group member
● accept gender equality
● high self esteem

Men display these qualities in addition to the qualities displayed by women.

7.11 Conclusion
This unit focused on gender empowerment trying to answer the following
questions: what is gender empowerment? How can we recognize it?
Evaluate it? It also showed that gender empowerment is a bottom up process
and cannot be bestowed from the top down. Although the outside
professional can facilitate empowerment, he or she cannot expect to control
the out comes of authentic empowerment

150
 References
Adair, M and Howell, S, (1989) The subjective side of power, in healing the wounds. The promise of ecofeminism .New
Society Publication Philadelphia

Albert, D.H (1985) People Power – applying non-violence theory New Society publishers, Philadelphia

Czuba, C.E (2003) Empowerment: what is it @ http: / www. Cczuba @carn/cag.uconn.edu accessed 19/09/09

Eade, D (Ed) (1999) Development with women Oxfam publication Great Britain

FAWE 2004 Tuseme “speak out Tanzania best practices in girls’ education Africa Nairobi

Fiedrich, M and Jellema, A (2003) Literacy gender and social agency: Adventures in empowerment action aid London

Hannan.(2003)Trans

Homelink, C.J (1994) Trends in world communication on disempowerment and self empowerment Southbound Third
World network, Penang, Malaysia

Korten D.E (1987) Community Management kumarian press West Hartford, C.T

Kreisberg, S (1992) Transforming Power Domination, Empowerment and Education New York State University Press
Albany NY

Lipps, H (1991) Women, Men and Power, Mayfield Mountain View, CA

Longwe, S (2001) Gender, Equality and woman empowerment @ http:/www.quets.kwinnoforum.se/measuring/

Namibia report .htm accessed 31/07/09

Loppe, FM and Du –Bois P.M (1994) The Quickening of America: Rebuilding our nation remaking our lives jossey-
Bass, and Publisher.San Francisco

Wallace T and March C (1991) Changing Perceptions: Writings on Gender and Development Oxfam Ireland.

Willam, S (1994) Oxfam Gender training manual Oxfam (UK and Ireland)

Zimbabwe National Gender Policy (2000)

Unit 8

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 Gender Law and Human Rights
By Nyevero Maruzani and Doreen Mazambani

CONTENTS
8.0 Introduction
8:1Objectives
8.2 Understanding Gender and the Law
8.3 How the law institutionalizes gender inequality
8.4 Progressive and retrogressive legislation
8.5 Gender analysis of laws
8.6 Legal redress of gender imbalances
8.7 Gender and human rights
8.8 Linking gender and human rights
8.9 Conclusion

8.0 Introduction

In the previous units an attempt has been made to define the term gender.
Various concepts have been looked at in an attempt to clarify the fact that
gender is a social construct. From that foundation, this chapter seeks to
unveil how the law acts both as a legitimiser and regulator of asymmetrical
gender relations. The critical role that the law plays in maintaining sexual
stratification and shaping the inferior social and economic position of
women in society will be discussed. It is also the aim of this chapter to
show how the law reflects and shapes fundamental social values.
Considering that gender is a variable that operates in a social context the
interrelationship of gender and human rights will also be discussed

8.1 Objectives

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

● Highlight the interrelationship between gender, law and human rights

● Highlight progressive and retrogressive laws on gender issues
● Highlight the interrelationship between gender and human rights
● Assess knowledge of gender ,law and human rights through tasks

8.2 Understanding Gender and the Law

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 The law reflects and shapes fundamental social values as postulated by legal
sociologists Nadder and Todd:
Law has many functions. It serves to educate to punish and to protect private
and public interests, to maintain the status quo, to maintain class systems
and to cut across them, to integrate and to disintegrate societies, all these
things in different places at different times with different weightings
(1978:1)

This evidences the fact that there are legal contradictions at work in society
and that the law is not a finished product of historical social processes. Thus
the law can be both an instrument of social change and an obstacle to it.

What is the law?

It is important that you understand what we mean by the term “law”. For this
reason you need to be clear in your mind about the various divisions within
the body of the law. An understanding of these divisions of the law will
enable you to correctly classify the wrongful act thereby enabling the parties
concerned to determine their rights.

The law according to David and Colin (2002) may be defined as a rule of
human conduct, imposed upon and enforced among the members of a given
state. Rules or laws are therefore drawn up to ensure that members of a
society ,that is you and me ,may live and work together in an orderly and
peaceable manner.

ACTIVITY 8. 1

● Do you think that the laws in your society are making men and women work
together in a peace able and orderly manner?
● Do these laws protect one sex at the expense of the other sex?
● Is the punishment for law breaking satisfactory? Why do you say so?

The law is the official rule that people must obey. It refers to the collection
of rules imposed by authority. Laws have often been described as gender
neutral and others as gender specific. Gender neutral laws are those that

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apply equally to everybody regardless of one is a man or woman. Most laws
generally fall into this category. At least on paper such laws apply equally to
everyone without discrimination even though in reality their effect on men
and women maybe different. Although most countries today have laws
which give equal rights to men and women the fact is that such laws tend to
affect men and women differently because of the different roles and paths in
life that each follow. This is often referred to as the difference between law
in the book and law in reality.

Gender specific laws on the other hand are laws that apply specifically to
either men or women. This is mainly because men and women are different
biologically so there maybe instances where women require special laws
when the reality of their biological differences is taken into account. Laws
on breast feeding and maternity leave are gender specific in that they apply
to women because they are the ones directly affected by pregnancy and
childbirth. In pursuit of gender equality especially in the caring of children
paternity leave has been introduced to allow fathers to take time off to look
after their newly born children.

The law as given by Reynolds and Russell (1981) can be divided into two
major categories that is the public and the private law as follows:

Public-law – deals with relationships between the state and

individuals e.g.
criminal law, administrative law and constitutional law.

Private Law: deals with relationships between individuals

amongst
themselves e.g. law of delict, law of contract, law of property, law of
succession, law of obligations and family law.

Procedural Law: deals with how the rules governing state and individual
relationships are administered and enforced e.g. criminal procedure, civil
procedure and law of evidence. This type of law falls under public and
private laws(Reynolds and Russsel 1981:39)

Public/private dichotomy
The public sphere (work and politics) and private dichotomy (domestic life
home and family is deeply ingrained in the law. Regardless of the operative
legal system or cultural context laws concerning the public area e.g labour

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 law have been modernized and brought in line with more enlightened
thinking while family and personal matters in the private sphere have for the
most part left untouched by the state e.g Section 23 of the Constitution of
Zimbabwe which permits discrimination in issues of customary family and
personal law.

ACTIVITY 8. 2
State any public law and the procedural law that is used in trying to
bring peace between the two parties concerned.

Applying the concept of gender to the law means that we must seek to
understand how each law affects men and women differently. If a law is
gender neutral it does not mean that it affects men and women in a similar
way. A gender analysis of the law requires that we appreciate sameness as
well as differences between men and women. In any society laws we also
need laws that recognize the differences between men and women.

A gender analysis of the law is also important because simply changing the
law does not mean the end of discrimination. Often even after a law is
changed there is need to understand the different factors that prevent that
law from being effective. There are many reasons why the law may not be
effective. Administratively those who apply the law may not be doing the
best they can to make sure that it works effectively. Equally important is
that society’s attitudes and beliefs may also prevent the law from being
effective. If we understand what these attitudes are, then we can work
effectively towards changing them.

8.3 How the law institutionalizes gender inequality

Four mechanisms are key to this process:

● Unjust formal law that are discriminatory and limit the scope of women.
● Prejudicial enforcement of laws favourable to women by administrative and
state enforcement agents such as police, courts and prisons.
● Lacunae/gaps in the law. In some instances women’s inferior status results
prejudicial social practices not changed by the law.

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● Remoteness of the law. There is general ignorance of the law despite the
prescription of awareness which makes ignorance of the law not a defense
ignorance of the law and law making processes especially by women who
tend to be unaware of their status of the rights they posses, of the effect laws
have on than, or the role they might play in changing the law.

Societies regulate the acquisition and control of land, jobs credit and other
goods and services through their legal systems and adjudicative processes.
Women’s subordination based on unequal gender relations is manifest in the
law in several key areas particularly labour law, criminal law and civil law
which governs legal capacity, rights and obligations in marriage,
guardianship, inheritance income, land rights and participation in public
affairs.

Laws reinforce women’s oppression by legitimizing hierarchical gender

relations, proprietary relations of men over women unequal division of
labour and power over the allocation of resources.

8.4 Progressive and retrogressive legislation

Examples of retrogressive legislation

a) Constitution of Zimbabwe Section 23

b) Companies Act Section 171(3) (b)
c) Communal Lands Act and land reform programme
d) Customary marriages Act
e) Guardianship of minors Act
f) Land Acquisition Act
g) Mining Act

Constitution of Zimbabwe Section 23

Section 23 of the constitution of Zimbabwe is the non-discrimination clause.

It makes discrimination on the grounds of among other things race, colour,
creed, tribe, and religion, sex impermissible. This section was amended in
1996 by Amendment 14 to add ‘gender’ as another impermissible basis for
discrimination. This same section excludes discrimination in matters relating
to ‘adoption, marriage, divorce, and devolution of property on death or other
matters of personal law’. What this means is that while the constitution
purports to protect women against gender-based discrimination, it excludes

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from constitutional regulation, family, personal and customary law yet these
are the areas of law in which gender discrimination is mostly entrenched.

Section 173(1) (b) Companies Act

The section reads:

Disqualification for appointment as director:
(1) (a) a minor or any other person under legal disability
(!) (b) provided that a woman married in community of property may be
director if her husband gives his written consent and that consent is lodged
with the Registrar of Companies.

What this means is that only a woman requires the husband’s consent for her
to become a director but the woman’s consent is not required for the husband
to become a director. This stems from the issue of power where the husband
as head of family and home decision-maker should sanction any actions of
other members of the household including the wife especially where such
actions can result in legal and financial liability to the matrimonial estate.

Communal Lands Act (1982)

In communal areas land should be apportioned in accordance with the

customs and practices of the people of the area in consultation with
traditional leaders and the district administrator.

There is no enabling legal framework to ensure equality in the redistribution

of land. Colonial land tenure arrangements that discriminated against
women have been perpetuated in the present day through the Communal
Lands Act. Under this law, women in communal areas, where most rural
Zimbabweans live, are still expected to depend on men for land, denying
them land tenure rights. Even though section 16 of the Constitution of
Zimbabwe stipulates that every citizen has an equal right to ownership of
property, another constitutional provision, section 23 has permitted
discrimination against women under customary law. Given the fact that
customary law places heavy emphasis on land rights being enjoyed by the
head of the household who in the context of Zimbabwean customary law is
generally considered to be male, women’s land rights are not adequately
protected. The fact that women lack access to and control over land makes
them unable to acquire credit, marketing facilities and excludes them from
decision making powers over agricultural production activities and benefits.

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Land reform programme

In October 2000, the Government of Zimbabwe undertook to allocate at

least 20% of all land identified for resettlement to women. It was
discrimination in itself to allocate only 20% to women when they make up
52% of the population. Despite this, by August 2002 when the President
announced that the fast Track Land Reform Programme had been officially
completed, the land quota for women had not been put into law and the
number of females allocated land was very low countrywide. According to
the 2003 Utete land Audit Report, female-headed households who benefited
under model A1 (peasant farmers) constituted only 18% of the total number
of household while female beneficiaries under the Model A2 (commercial
farmers) constituted only 12%.

Guardianship of Minors Act

Guardianship involves having the capacity to make decisions on behalf of a

minor in both contractual and judicial matters and pertaining to the child’s
welfare. This law makes the father of a child born in wedlock (in marriage)
the natural guardian so entitled to make decisions pertaining to the child’s
welfare and his consent is required un juridical acts like acquisition of birth
certificates, passports and performance of surgical processes. There is no
joint guardianship with the mother.

This emanates from the social norm that children belong to the father whose
name they take after. The woman is just a medium reproduction of that
which does not belong to her.

For children born out of wedlock (out of marriage) the mother of the child is
the sole guardian. The father does not have any rights towards the child
except for purposes of maintenance if the mother so wishes to claim it.

Mining Act

The Act does not permit women from working underground in mines it
seems to be based on the notion of women’s fragility and irrationality hence
the need to prevent harm to themselves and others since mining is
considered a hazardous occupation.

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 Examples of progressive legislation

a) Administration of Estates Amendment 6/97

b) Deeds Registries Amendment Act
c) Income tax Amendment Act
d) Labour Relations Amendment Act
e) Matrimonial causes Act
f) Minimum Wages Regulations
g) Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims of Domestic
Violence Bill
h) Sexual Discrimination Removal Act

Administration of Estates Amendment 6/97

The amendment now allows women to inherit from their husbands, although
there is still discrimination in polygamous marriages where senior wife gets
a bigger portion in spite of contributions by junior wives.
The Act also:
- Abolished concept of male heirship and male beneficiary in own personal
capacity and replaced it executorship where an executor usually surviving
spouse is tasked by the court to oversee distribution of estate and benefits
from estate together with other beneficiaries including surviving children
both male and female.
- Surviving spouse (male or female) and children (male and female) now
prime beneficiaries of deceased estate.

Magaya V Magaya

This case involved inheritance rights. The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe

made a landmark decision that gave precedence to customary law over the
constitution. The ruling that women cannot be considered equal to men
before the law in issues of inheritance because of African cultural norms and
the nature of African society was in itself discrimination on the basis of sex.

A female eldest child was denied the right to inherit in preference of a

younger brother. The judge in the lower court held that:

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 “The claimant is a lady and therefore cannot be appointed heir to her father’s
estate when there is a man…”

The judiciary backed up its decision by referring to Section 23 of the

constitution of Zimbabwe. The Constitution prohibits discrimination in
Article 23(1) but in Article 23(3) recognizes exceptions to this general
prohibition against discrimination in issues relating to among others
adoption, marriage, divorce, burial, devotion of property on death or other
matters of personal law as well as the application of African customary law.
Essentially, by making this judgement, the Supreme Court elevated
customary law beyond constitutional scrutiny Outcry after the decision led
to Amendment 6/97 as discussed above.

Deeds Registries Act

Women can now register immovable property in their own name (applies to
urban and rural commercial land where title deeds are obtainable.

Equal Pay Regulations (1980)

s
The Regulations provide for equal pay for work of equal value.

Income Tax Amendment Act

The Income Tax Act was amended in favour of women, in 1990. Prior to the
amendment; married women’s income was taxed as part of the husband’s
income. Now spouses are taxed separately. This resulted in women ending
up with little money, because allowances such as children’s allowances were
credited to men.

Labour Relations Amendment Act (2004)

- Non-discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sex or gender in

recruitment, promotion, training, retrenchment and other benefits.
- 98 days fully paid maternity leave for both public and private sector
employed women
- Prohibition of sexual harassment

Legal Age of Majority Act (LAMA) (1982)

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 In 1982, the Legal Age of Majority Act conferred on all persons of both
sexes full legal capacity on reaching 18 years of age.
- Section 3 thereof bestowed majority status on African women who were
previously considered perpetual minors upon attainment of the age of 18.
- Bestowed legal capacity on African women who previously lacked it so
women can now perform legal and juristic acts such as entering into
contracts without the assistance of male guardians and control over their
sexuality. Women of 18 years or above, not their guardians cannot sue for
seduction damages.
- Reduced age of majority from 21-18 for both males and females.

Chihowa V Mangwende SC 84/87

The then Chief Justice held:

The legislature by enacting LAMA made women who in African law and
custom were perpetual minors majors and therefore equal to men who are
majors.
Concern has been raised over the Act’s failure to pronounce the legality or
otherwise of the payment of lobola. Some women believe that their
oppression is rooted in this system and recommend that it be made illegal.
However there are dissenting voices on the issue.

Maintenance Act

Provides for maintenance claims for spouse and children or for children born
out of wedlock against spouse of child’s parent who is obliged to materially
support dependents and has been failing to fulfill the obligation and is
financially capable of doing so.

Matrimonial Causes Act (1985)

The Act allows for equitable distribution of property between spouses on

divorce in a registered marriage. The Act empowered the courts to override
customary law and to effect a more equitable re-distribution of matrimonial
property upon dissolution of a marriage. The law takes into account a
woman’s economic or domestic contribution to the well being of her family
and thus ensures equitable distribution of matrimonial property between the
spouses. Unfortunately the Act does not apply to unregistered customary

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 marriages, which are legally not recognized as valid marriages except for
purposed of African law and custom relating to the status, guardianship,
custody and rights of succession in the children.

Minimum Wages (1980)

Minimum wages for various unskilled occupations the majority of whom are
women were set. Seasonal workers (tobacco, tea and cotton pickers) were
categorized as permanent for purposes of pension benefits.

Sexual Offences Act (2001)

- Provides protection from sexual abuse to all children not only the girl child
as was previously the case.
- Both men and women are deemed capable of performing sexual offences
including rape.
- Protection of women from non-consensual sexual intercourse within
marriage (marital rape protection)
- Spousal liability for willful transmission of HIV

Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims of Domestic

Violence Bill

- Seeks to eliminate violence be it physical, verbal or economic in

relationships of a domestic nature e.g. husband/wife boyfriend/girlfriend,
child/parent etc
- Both males and females can be perpetrators or victims of domestic violence
- Social, religious and cultural practices such as virginity testing, chiramu (in-
law flirtation), kuzvarira (pledging) chimutsamapfihwa (substitute wifing)
etc are outlawed as constituting domestic violence.

Matrimonial Causes Act (1985)

- Recognises a married woman’s right to matrimonial property upon divorce.

- Introduced equitable distribution of matrimonial property upon divorce,
which takes into consideration domestic work input.

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8.5 Gender Analysis of Laws

Case law is a body of available writings explaining the verdict in a

case(Oran,1983: 5). It is most created by judges in their rulings when they
write their decisions and give the reasoning behind them as well as citing
precedents in other cases and statutes that had a bearing on their decisions
case law is often referred to as common-law in many regions of the world.
Oran(1983) also referred to it as judge made law. The term judge made law
is derived form the fact that while legislation is technically passed in most
countries by a legislative branch, courts are able to exercise moderate
amount of quasi-legislative power through the use of precedent case-law.
Case law allows courts to transform decisions that may have taken a great
deal of time and energy to arrive at into a de-facto law, making future cases
much easier to decide.

Curzon(2002) concurs with Oran(1983) on the view that statutory or statute

law is written law set down by a legislative body. Statutes are enacted in
response to a perceived need to clarify the function of government, improve
civil order, to codify existing law or for an individual or company to obtain
special treatment. Statute law refers to the law that has been created by
parliament in the form of legislation. It can also be described as an act of
parliament.

ACTIVITY 8. 3
1. What is the advantage of doing gender analysis of
laws?
2. Who benefits from that analysis?
1.

With the given explanations of case and statutory law we are going to look at
the gender analysis of certain laws. The idea of gender analysis will not be
discussed here as it has been looked at in detail in a previous chapter.

Examples of gender dimensions in Zimbabwe’s Law

Table 8.1
Law Gender Analysis
S23 of the The constitution grants equal right to everyone
Constitution of and protection from discrimination on the grounds
Zimbabwe of race, tribe, place of origin, political opinions,
color, creed or gender. However, its protection of

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 customary law in matters such as adoption,
marriage, divorce, burial, devolution of property,
on death or other matters of personal including
rights relating to communal land impact on men
and women differently since customary laws in
these areas tends to disadvantage women. The
constitutional provisions relating to non
discrimination can be said to be worded in a
gender neutral manner but they impact on men
and women in a very gender specific way.
The Legal Age of The legal age of majority Act is a gender-neutral
Majority Act (Now piece of legislation in that it gives equal rights to
part of the general everyone at the age of 18. however, it impacts
laws Amendment more on women because of how society has
Act Chapter 8:07) tended to regard their status as being inferior.
Matrimonial causes Act contains guidelines on
distribution of property on divorce. It is largely
gender neutral but also contains some provisions,
which can be looked at from a gender specific
viewpoint. Of importance is the recognition
amongst other things f contributions made to the
family by looking after the home, and caring for
the family as well as any other domestic duties. It
is mainly, though not exclusively, women who are
involved in this kind of work and therefore stand
to benefit more from a direct recognition of
housework.
The Labour It contains some gender specific provisions
Relations Act particularly those relating to maternity leave and
breastfeeding rights.
The Deceased It is a gender-neutral piece of legislation, which
Persons Family allows a person who was being maintained by the
Maintenance Act deceased to claim support from the estate. It also
protects the estate from property grabbers. In
reality when we look at the effects of this Act, it is
again quite clear that because of the social
realities that exist on the ground it tends to have a
different meaning for men and women.
Administration of Puts emphasis on the surviving spouse(s) and
Estates Amendment children as the primary beneficiaries of the estate.

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Act It can be descried as being both gender neutral
and gender specific at the same time. It is gender
specific in that it treats the distribution of the
estate of a polygamous man differently from the
death of one of his spouses. While widows can
expect to share 1/3 from the estate of each of his
wives should they die before him.
Infanticide Act Allows the court to examine the special
circumstances of women who kill their babies.
Since it is women who give birth, the Act is
largely gender specific although it also contains
some provisions relating to the father of the child.
Customary This is an example of a law that is seemingly
Marriages Act gender neutral but favours men. It allows
polygamy as a practice for men only in that they
can take on more than one wife.

8.6 Way Forward – legal redress of gender imbalances

- Enactment of Gender equality Act

- Gender audit and review of all legislation to make it gender sensitive and
responsive
- Gender training for state administrators and law enforcement agents
- Legal literacy
- Legal education or sensitization
- Community gender and human rights training

8.7 Gender and Human Rights

What are Human rights?

Human rights refer to basic rights or legal claims to which all humans are
entitled by virtue of them being human(English and Stapleton,1997:7).
Professor Jack Donnely in Chiweshe et al (2003) define human rights as the
rights that one has simply because one is human. He goes on to say:

Human rights, because they rest on nothing more than being

human are universal, equal and inalienable. They are held up
by all beings universally. One either is or is not human
and thus has or does not have rights equally.And can no more lose

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these rights than one can stop being a human being .No matter
how inhumane the treatment one may suffer. One is entitled to
human rights and is empowered by them(page 9)

To put it in simpler terms, human rights can be given as those freedoms or

claims that every human being is automatically entitled to, just because you
are born a human being
Examples of rights and freedoms which are often classified as human rights
include right to life and to liberty, freedom of expression and equality before
the law, economic, social and cultural rights, the right to participate in
culture, right to food, right to work and the right to education. All human
beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood. Human rights are rights which people are entitled to simply
because they are human beings regardless of their nationality, race, ethnicity,
gender or religion. These are rights that every human being automatically
qualities for at birth. No personal factors can lead one being denied these
rights. Central to the concept of human rights is the protection of human
dignity.

The gendered nature of human Rights

The promotion of gender equality remains one of the greatest challenges of

our times, globally and locally. At a global level there are many
international human rights instruments that on the face of it grant equal
rights to men and women. Some of the major instruments include the
Universal Declaration of human rights as well as the Covenant on Social and
Economic rights.

From a gender perspective it is also important to understand how the

different human rights instruments deal or do not deal with issues of gender.

Human rights have often been spoken of in terms of different generation of

rights depending on what they deal with.
- First generation of rights Civil and political rights
- Second generation of rights Social economic and cultural rights
- Third generation of rights Collective/solidarity or group rights

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 The analysis below discusses briefly some of the criticisms that have been
made against each of this generation of rights in terms of how they deal with
the gender issues.

First Generation of Rights: Civil and Political Rights

The major criticism against this generation of rights is that they are mainly
founded on the experiences of men in public as opposed to highlighting the
experiences of both men and women. Women tend to experience violations
of their rights in the private sphere. In other words, what has come to
concern us under this generation of rights has largely excluded the
experiences of women as illustrated more fully in the examples below.

For example, the right to life which is a granted to all in Article 6 of the
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is criticized for being interpreted in a
manner which treats the threat to the right to life as coming from state actors
only. The global interpretation is criticized for excluding important spheres
that also threaten the right to life for women when compared to men such as:
- Abortion
- Infanticide (eg killing of girl children in cultures that favour male children)
- Malnutrition (e.g from feeding men first in some cultures)
- Less access to health care compared to men (death from pregnancy and lack
of access to health care)
- Violence against women, which can result in death

Freedom from torture is also criticized for being interpreted in a manner

which assumes that most torture takes place at the hands of public officials
when for most women when compared to men the greatest level of torture
takes place in the home, the private sphere as opposed to the public sphere.

The interpretation of the right to liberty and security of the person is also
criticized for being interpreted in manner which addresses actions of the
state only and does not address violations to liberty and security of the
person that result from sexual violence against women.

The right to privacy, another major civil political right is also criticized from
a gender view point for protecting the home and the family as private sites
when they can be very dangerous places for women because of the violence
which often takes place inside them.

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Second Generation Rights: Social Economic and Cultural Rights

The criticism of social and economic rights is that like civil and political
rights, they have tended to be interpreted in a manner, which takes men’s
experiences more into account compared to the experiences of women. For
example, Article 7 of the Covenant talks of the right to work, equal
remuneration of workers, favourable working conditions, equal opportunities
for promotion and so on. The bulk of women, when compared to men are
confined to work in the private sphere, yet the article is more concerned with
work in the public sphere.

Cultural and religious rights which are also guaranteed by this covenant are
areas that often present problems for women.

Another criticism is that state parties are regarded as central in achieving

social and economic rights when for most women, their rights are often
negotiated through individual men or groups of men.

Third Generation Rights: Collective or group rights

The right to development and the right to self-determination constitute some

of the major collective or group rights. They tend to emphasize the rights of
groups and collectives as opposed to the rights of individuals. From a gender
perspective, these rights are regarded as problematic for several reasons.

The right to development for instance has often been interpreted to suit male
economic needs. An example is land distribution that has tended to favour
men at the expense of women.

The right to self-determination has also often been interpreted in a manner

that masks the oppression of women. Women are often neglected in
nationalists’ movements.

The major criticism from a gender perspective of third generation rights is

that they have generally addressed male interests in political life rather than
taking care of the interests of both men and women.

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 Summary of criticism of mainstream human rights from a gender perspective

The process through which the rights were formulated did not include women and
therefore it is largely the experiences of what human rights are.

The priority given to civil and political rights marginalizes social and economic rights.

Many issues of concern to women such as underdevelopment, illiteracy, gender

segregation, lack of reproductive choice, have either not been defined as human rights
in main stream instruments or are not binding in terms of enforcement.

Governments, in the name of culture often justify violations of human rights.

Women as compared to men are also seriously underrepresented in human rights

bodies.

ACTIVITY8. 4
● What is your definition of human rights?
● What are the characteristics of human rights?
● In Zimbabwe how do laws impact on human rights?

Are Women’s Rights Human Rights?

One may wonder why this section asks about the rights of women only. You
may be very correct to wonder that way, may be you see the need for an
address of the rights of women or you are thinking otherwise but after
reading this section I am sure together you and i can justify our standpoints.

Women’s rights are human rights. Why? Women are human beings!
Women’s equal dignity and human rights as full human beings are enshrined
in the basic instruments of today’s international community. From the

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Charter of the United Nations endorsement of the equal rights of men and
women (1945) to the universal declaration of human rights (1948) and the
subsequent international treaties and declarations.

The rights of women are central to our democratic society. These

declarations and treaties and even the Vienna Declaration of (1993) and the
Declaration of Beijing (1995) stand in sharp contrast to the daily realities for
millions of women, of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty 70% are
women, the majority of the world’s refugees are women, female illiteracy.
Women and girls are treated as commodities in cross boarder prostitution
rackets and in the pornography industry. Millions of girls are still subject to
genital mutilations while women in every country are regular victims of
domestic violence, in many countries women lack access to reproductive
health care and everyday women are targeted in armed conflict. Women’s
economic, social and cultural rights continue to be neglected. There can be
no peace, security or sustainable economic development in societies which
deny human rights including the human rights of women. Fighting for
women rights is a positive struggle, which recognizes the quality of
women’s contribution in every aspect of the community, in politics, industry
commerce, education, academic, agriculture and home. Women’s rights are
human rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for human rights
is committed to work in partnership with UN agencies and programmes,
governments, regional organisations, academic institutions, the NGO
community and women throughout the world to promote and protect
women’s rights and to translate these rights to a better quality of the life for
all. Hillary Clinton at the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing
China presented a speech in which he strongly pronounced that women’s
rights are human rights. Consider an important quote, which says:

The human rights of women and the girl child are an inalienable, integral
and indivisible part of the universal human rights. The fall and equal
participation of women in political, civil economic, social and cultural life at
the national regional and international levels and the eradication of all forms
of discrimination on the grounds of sex are priority objectives of the
international community (Vienna Declaration and Platform of Action Part 1
Paragraph 18).

S
I am sure our discussion on the issue of women ‘s rights as human rights
has been justifiedAs you can see women are denied their rights due too a

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number of reasons .These reasons may be big or small,economic,cultural and
many others ,the point remains; some rights are granted or denied due to
one’s sex .The next section highlights this aspect.

8:8 Linking Gender and Human Rights

Analysis of content and nature of human rights as well as measures to ensure

their enjoyment should be informed by gender based considerations. There
are many processes at the domestic and international levels through which
the content of human rights is clarified and their implementations occurs.
The systematic integration of gender factors into these processes, into
measures for implementation and into domestic and international monitoring
is a global challenge.

In the enjoyment of rights women face constraints and vulnerabilities which

differ from those that affect men and which are of significant relevance to
the enjoyment of these rights. This variable mean that women maybe
affected by violations of rights in ways that are different from men. Women
are disappropriately affected by poverty and social marginalization. They
suffer systematic and unsystematic discrimination which results in deep
patterns of inequality and disadvantage. The overall level of development
and of resources available to countries, women’s literacy levels and women’s
access to information and to legal remedies also have an impact on women’s
enjoyment of their rights. The gender based division of labour with women
being primarily responsible for reproductive work and work related the
family and men for productive work, also contributes to the perpetration of
gender inequalities.

Many women experience multiple barriers in gaining access to rights such as

employment, housing, land, food and social security. These barriers include
the disproportionate burden of reproductive and care-giving work performed
by women, the sexual division of labour and segregated employment
practices, discriminatory traditional and cultural laws and practices, unequal
representation by women in political and other decision making structures at
all levels and the widespread violence perpetuated against women.
Women’s social position, marital status class or membership in particular

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vulnerable groups such as refugees or migrant women rural or urban poor
women are often linked to discrimination.

When laws, customs, traditional roles family responsibilities or attitudes and

stereotypes provide women with fewer opportunities or place them at a
disadvantage as they seek to access opportunities remedial measures are
needed to eliminate such disadvantages to prevent them from recurring.
When policies are designed in the context of respect for promotion and
protection of human rights then unequal outcomes for women in the
economic and social spheres oblige governments to design procedures in a
way that reduces inequality.

Human Rights Instruments and Gender

Over the last decade the concept of gender has increasingly informed policy
programming and treaty interpretation both within and outside the UN
system. The principle of equal rights of women and men was recognized in
the UN Charter and is contained in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and all subsequent international human rights instruments. The need
for women’s participation in all spheres of society both in the public and
private domains and the recognition of inequality and discrimination in the
private domain led to the creation of specific standards for the protection of
women’s rights.

In (1979) the United Nations adopted the convention on the Elimination of

all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW establishes
women’s right to non-discrimination on the basis of sex and affirms equality
in international law. It provides that women and men are entitled to equal
enjoyment and exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms in civil,
cultural, economic, political and social fields. The (1993) Vienna
Conference of Human Rights the (1994) Cairo Conference on Population
and Development and the (1995) Beijing Women’s World Conference
recognized the need to build on these principles to assert women’s rights.
These global conferences promoted the review of policies and programmes
from the perspective of their impact on women and men that is the re-
evaluation of policies and programmes from a gender perspective. This has
led to gender mainstreaming (discussed in Unit 1), which aimed at
correcting disparities in different policy sectors and ensuring their enjoyment
of civil, cultural, economic political and social rights. Gender mainstreaming
also requires action to identify areas where gender constitute a risk factor for

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 violation or abuse of human rights for example gender based violence. All
in all gender mainstreaming is an organizational imperative so as to
reinforce the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of sex for the
achievement of gender equality and the enjoyment of human rights.

Major human rights instruments which have been adopted within the UN
framework include the following:

● ICCPR—The International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights (1966)

● ICESCR---The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (1966)

● ICERD-----The International Convention on the Elimination Of All Forms

Of Racial Discrimination1965

● CEDAW--------The Convention on the Elimination of All Form Of

Discrimination Against Women(1979)

● CRC-----The Convention On The Rights of The Child(1989)

● CAT-----The Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or

Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984) (Chiweshe et al 2003:12)

Implementation of human rights instruments on gender equality

The Women’s Convention: A Search for Gender equality?

Because of the limitations of the major human rights instruments in

addressing gender issues, women successfully lobbied for a major
international human rights instrument dealing with women’ issues. It came
into force on the 3rd of September 1981. Its approach is to seek to improve
the lives of women by making them equal with men.

Among its provisions, the Women’s Convention calls for the ending of
discrimination against women through constitutional and legal reforms. It
also seeks for women’s equality in political and civil life. It also calls for
equality in marriage and family life and specifically addresses the rights of
rural women.

The African Charter on Human and People’s rights

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Regional Instruments are an important frame of reference for human rights
in addition to international instruments. In our case the Africa Charter on
Human and People’s Rights plays as a crucial role in defining human rights
from an African viewpoint. While the Charter is largely gender neutral in its
approach it contains some Articles that speak directly to women. For
example, Article 18 requires states to eliminate discrimination against
women and ensure the protection of women and children as required by
international instruments.

From a gender analysis viewpoint, the African Charter talks of preserving

positive African cultural values. Cultural values that are preserved should
not be the ones that seek to oppress women. Within the African context talk
of cultural values raises important questions about practices such as lobola,
female circumcision and widow inheritance, to mention a few.

The Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women

Because of the limitations of the African Charter as a largely gender neutral

document in bringing gender equality particularly for women, the heads of
state adopted an additional instrument in 2002 called the Protocol to the
African Charter on the Rights of women. Like the CEDAW, it seeks to
address key areas where women need to be uplifted. It singles out practices
that need to be done away with if women and men are to achieve equality,
such as circumcision and widow inheritance and polygamous marriages.

While it is a progressive instrument the problem is that it can only come into
force when at least 16 African countries have adopted it at the country level.
So far only four countries have.

The SADC Declaration on gender and development

Another instrument which is of use in understanding gender issues is the

SADC Declaration on Gender and Development. It was adopted by the
heads of state of the Southern African Development Community in 1997. It
is informed by the understanding of gender equality as a fundamental human
right and more significantly by the appreciation of the role of gender
equality in the sustainable development of the SADC region. It also
acknowledges the significant point that most SADC member countries have
ratified CEDAW or are in the process of doing so. As such, the SADC
Declaration, as is the case with the African Charter on Human and People’s

174
Rights, has to be in line with the letter and the spirit of CEDAW. Also
emphasized are the gains to be made from closer cooperation and collective
action on gender issues within the region. Areas identified as needing
particular attention are the gender disparities in decision-making, power
sharing access and control over reproductive resources, education, health
and legal rights. Especially noteworthy is the undertaking to repeal and
reform all laws, amend constitutions and change social practices that
continue to subject women to discrimination.

National Efforts

Zimbabwe is party to the major international human rights such as the

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on Social and
Economic Rights the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of
Discrimination Against Women. It is also a party to the African Charter on
Human and People’s rights. However, it has not yet adopted the Protocol to
the African Charter on the rights of women. While a lot of progress has
been made at the country level in terms of changing laws and adopting new
ones that seek to equalize the rights of men and women, the biggest
challenge in Zimbabwe remains in the implementation of these laws both
administratively and at societal level.

A significant limitation from a gender viewpoint is that our Constitution as

the highest law of the land still contains provisions, which tend to protect
customary law from the non-discriminatory provisions. The constitution as
the highest law of the land needs to be an instrument that fosters equality
without fear or favour.

8:9 Conclusion

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From the foregoing it is evident that Zimbabwean society is relatively
unequal in terms of gender. This inequality between men and women is
negatively impacting on income distribution, political participation, power
relations, access to, control and ownership of economic and productive
resources leading to impediment of human development efforts aimed at
addressing issues of equity, social justice and human rights. Various pieces
of legislation are in place to maintain the status quo. It can also be
concluded that despite the fact that 52% of the Zimbabwean population are
women, men continue to have a higher human development index as
compared to females in terms of political participation, decision-making and
education. However, the government is making strides in attempting to
promote gender equality in both the public and private sphere but section 23
of the constitution seems to be a provision carved on stone and has remained
etched in the supreme law of the land.
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Armstrong A., (1998), Culture and Choice Lessons from Survivors of Gender Violence in Zimbabwe (Harare: Violence
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(2003)Human Rights Trust Of Southern Africa Harare

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Oran,D(1993) Oran’s Dictionary of the Law.(2nd edition)New York,West Publishing

Reynolds,D.A. and Russel J.A.—Officers of the ministry of justice(1983) An Introduction To Law Ministry of
justice ,Harare

Southern African Research and Documentation Centre & Zimbabwe Women Resource Centre and Network (1998)
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Tsanga, A.S. (2003), Taking Law to the People: Gender Law Reform and Community Legal Education in Zimbabwe
(Harare, Weaver Press)

List of legislations cited

Matrimonial Causes Act

Minimum wages Act

Mining Act

Prevention of Domestic violence and Protection of victims of Domestic

violence Bill

Sexual Offences Act

Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims of Domestic

Violence Bill

Administration of Estates Amendment 6/97

Communal Lands Act and land reform programme

Companies Act Section 171(3) (b)

Constitution of Zimbabwe section 23

Customary marriages Act

Guardianship of minors Act

Intepretation Act

Labour Relations Amendment Act

Land Acquisition Act

Legal Age of Majority Act

Case law cited

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Chihowa v Mangwende SC 84/87, Magaya v Magaya SC 101/99

178