Zimbabwe politics: only boys allowed!

6) Assuming women’s causes are frivolous while men’s are serious

In Zimbabwean politics, men’s intelligence and political competence is usually assumed, while women’s has to be proved. The media plays into this narrative by often painting female MPs who speak out on women’s issues as shrill feminists obsessed with furthering frivolous agendas such as access to and affordability of sanitary wear and the criminalisation of new acts of violence against women such as revenge porn. Men, by contrast, are portrayed as being astute and engaged on issues of “public importance” such as economic recovery.

7) Allowing sexist remarks

Men in Zimbabwe are able to make openly sexist comments with relative impunity. Former President Robert Mugabe declared in the past that women will never be equal to men, while opposition leader Nelson Chamisa recently claimed, in what he would later dismiss as a joke, that he would give his 18-year-old sister to President Emmerson Mnangagwa if the latter won the elections. These misogynistic statements were condemned in some quarters, and Chamisa eventually apologised with some reluctance. For the most part, however, it is deemed acceptable for men to make openly sexist remarks that condone harmful traditional practices such as polygamy, early marriage and wife pledging, and devalue women without censure.

Confronting the barriers

In the shared political space that comes with power, prestige and hyper-visibility, Zimbabwe’s patriarchy remains deeply entrenched and bolstered by male politicians and the media. As the last five years have shown, simply having more women in parliament is neither the end goal nor sufficient to reach it.

Female politicians – and women’s issues more broadly – face all manner of barriers in getting heard. Some are very clear and direct, others more subtle, but they all contribute to the ongoing suppression of women in Zimbabwe. All these barriers need to be recognised and understood to be confronted. It will take committed, capable and engaged politicians to help create equality of outcomes in Zimbabwe through gender sensitive policies and laws.

By Rumbidzai Dube for African Arguments

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