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Zimbabwe National Army Commander Lt Philip Valerio Sibanda confers the first woman Shylet Moyo the rank of Brigadier General in this file photo

Vaidah Mashangwa
Access to education by women and girls has an important role in addressing occupational segregation. Lack of basic education has left millions of women stuck in low-paid informal employment. Globally, nearly 800 million adults are illiterate and lack numeracy skills and almost two thirds of them are women.Apart from that, after work most women hardly find time to advance themselves due to women’s responsibility for unpaid care work, reproductive roles and domestic work. This also limits their participation in the evenings and weekend classes while most men continually advance themselves. In most families it is still common to find differences in qualifications between men and women as well as a marked difference in the type of work they do.

Lack of education and career choice has further affected women’s participation in high earning careers such as engineering, architecture and medicine. This is also a result of deeply ingrained stereotypes regarding the potential of women to study science subjects.

There is a need to continually encourage girls to study sciences and technical subjects. In Peru for example, the Projoven programme targets young women and offers them with three months of classroom training and internships with the aim of equipping women with skills of participating in traditionally male occupations.

According to Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016, in developing countries too, being married as well as the presence of young children in the household are also associated with lower employment rates for women but higher rates for men. In Mexico for example, 46 percent of women aged 25-34 in households with very young children were in the labour force in 2010 compared to 55 percent of women in households without children. On the other hand, 99 percent of men in households with very young children were employed compared to 96 percent for households without children. This is an indication too that women bear the sole responsibility of looking after the children.

In addition, due to lack of funds to place children in the child care facilities, most women spend hours on end minding children. A survey conducted in 31 developing countries revealed that 39 percent of working women with children under the age of six care for their own children. Only 4 percent of those interviewed reported using the childcare centres or nursery facilities. Among the poorest women, only 1 percent sent their children to nursery or preschool.

In Zimbabwe for example, most vendors sell their wares and mind their children from their points of operation and this also has a bearing on the quality of care that these children receive. It then becomes difficult for such mothers to enrol in the adult literacy classes or evening classes.

Due to their lower levels of participation in education, most women cannot reach grades of seniority in the private and public sector. The exclusion of women in large sections of the labour force creates a waste of human talent with negative consequences on the growth of the economy.

Globally, 63 percent women are in clerical and support positions, 55 percent in service and sales roles compared to 33 percent in managerial roles. Women occupy 37 percent of skilled work in agriculture and fisheries, 17 percent in crafts and trade occupations. In the United States for example, 36 percent of women are physicians and surgeons compared to 90 percent female registered nurses.

In Zimbabwe too, there are more men than women in mining and tourism. In tourism most women are in the arts and crafts, restaurants and lodges while men own house boats, safaris and hotels.

The continued occupational segregation can be attributed to gender differences in access to education, training and experience, discrimination, social/cultural norms and the unevenly distributed care and domestic work. Other external factors in Zimbabwe, according to Sadc Gender Protocol 2013 Barometer, include early marriages and pregnancy, initiation rites and cultural harmful practices, child labour and cultural beliefs that attach low value to education and poverty. All these factors affect women more than men.

Botswana, Malawi, Seychelles, Tanzania, South Africa and Zimbabwe have reached parity at primary school level and will meet the MDG2 of achieving universal primary education by 2015. Mozambique, Angola and DRC have low participation of girls at primary school.

As the level of education increases, more males enrol than females. In Zimbabwe, the country’s enrolment at tertiary levels has greatly improved with an increase of 42.1 percent of women enrolled at university in 2010. The government’s target for women in tertiary education is aimed at 50 percent by 2015.

Lack of access to education by women and girls also limits their participation in politics/decision making and local governance. Zimbabwe is ranked among the bottom four countries in Sadc in terms of women representation in Cabinet. South Africa, Mozambique and Malawi have 30 percent or more women in cabinet.

Women representation in the public service has gone up to 33 percent and Zimbabwe is now ranked fifth in the Sadc. In the security sector, women’s representation in top decision making positions remains below 30 percent. In 2013, Zimbabwe promoted its first woman Brigadier-General in the National Defence Forces, Shylet Moyo.

In terms of peace-making forces, women representation continues to increase. In 2011, 31 percent of Zimbabweans in peace-keeping forces were women and this increased to 42 percent in 2012. Women representation in the air force and Prison Services too is still far below 30 percent though there is parity at the level of Assistant Commissioner.

According to the Human Development Report 2013, equity between men and women is not only essential in itself but also important for human development. One important powerful instrument to achieve this is education. Education enables people to boost self-confidence and enables them to find better jobs, engage in public debate and also lobby for government to improve services such as health care, social security and other entitlements.

Besides providing better employment opportunities, education has also a striking impact on women’s lives. Research also shows that a mother’s level of education is more important to a child’s survival than the household income or wealth. According to the Human Development Report 2013, working women and more educated women (who tend to complete their schooling before bearing children) are likely to have fewer children who are also healthier. Educated women also have better access to contraception and use it more effectively.

China has more people than India, but China’s mortality rate is lower than that of India due to China’s advances in education. There is therefore dire need to reduce gender inequality in education so that both men and women are equal participants in development.

Vaidah Mashangwa is Bulawayo’s Provincial Development Officer, Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development. She can be contacted on 0772111592 email [email protected]