The Chronicle
FORMER United States Secretary of State and wife to former US President Bill Clinton, Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton once famously said: “There cannot be true democracy unless women’s voices are heard”. Indeed her statement aptly sums up the status of women the world over and as Zimbabwe marks 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (25 November-10 December), we cannot help but marvel at the remarkable progress women have made over the years.
The campaign for women’s rights has become universal and thanks to a robust women’s movement in Zimbabwe and the world over, women have made significant progress in pushing frontiers and getting their voices heard as full and equal citizens with a right to dignity and self-determination.
According to the Federation of Media Women in Zimbabwe (FAMWZ), this drive by women has seen some key milestones being achieved in order to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. These include policy and legislative reforms and the expansion of spaces and platforms for the realisation of women’s rights.
The Government is signatory to various regional and international conventions and treaties, declarations and protocols that seek to promote and create an enabling environment for the attainment of gender equality. These include the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1991), the Convention on Civil and Political Rights; the Global Platform for Action and the Beijing Declaration (1995).
In 1997, Zimbabwe signed the Sadc Declaration on Gender and Development as well as its addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children. The Legal Age of Majority Act, the Sexual Offences Act and the Domestic Violence Act are some of the legislations enacted to promote gender equality and protect women’s rights.
The National Gender Policy (2002) provides guidelines and the institutional framework to engender all sectoral policies, programmes, projects and activities at all levels of society and the economy. Gender focal points have been established in all ministries and parastatals to spearhead gender mainstreaming.
Government also has a whole ministry dedicated to women issues — the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development which was formed in 1995 to oversee all gender programmes and to facilitate gender mainstreaming in all sector ministries.
Some initiatives by the ministry have seen the adoption of the 16 Days Campaign Against Gender-Based Violence as an all-year campaign. However, as legislated discrimination against women continues to progressively fall away, a complementary change in mindsets and attitudes learnt through socialisation needs to take place if gender equality is to be a reality for both women and men.
We report in these pages almost daily of cases of domestic violence some of which regrettably end in tragic circumstances showing that society still has a long way to go to eliminate violence against women. We aver that there are still some men out there who feel challenged by the tremendous progress women have made in uplifting their lot and resort to violence as a way of keeping them down.
This is wrong and the courts should pass deterrent sentences on wife-bashers, rapists and murderers. Violence against women is not only physical but can be emotional. It is time society values the contribution women make to the country and accord both men and women equal access to opportunities. Gender equality does not mean that women and men have to become the same, but their rights, responsibilities and opportunities should not depend on whether they are born male or female.
Statistics from the last population census show that there are more women than men and this should be reflected in all spheres of our society. Yes, there is a strong representation of females in Parliament but women are still to break the male stranglehold in the corporate sector. In that regard, Zimbabwe still has a lot of work to do with regards to women’s empowerment.
