Feminism is for Everyone: Why We Must Ask 'Why?

In 2022, as the Junior Mayor of the City of Bulawayo, my first task was to accompany Old Mutual and the Amazing G foundation to Mbuyazwe secondary school on the outskirts of Bulawayo (but under the Khami Education District of Bulawayo.) I was asked to address parents, teachers, boys and girls about period poverty and the stigma that comes with menstruation. At first, I wondered why me? There were more female councilors than male councilors. However, the experience was not only eye opening, but enlightening: girls had to miss school because of lack of sanitary wear or use cow dung at the risk of infection. Including boys in the discourse about something I thought exclusively feminine was the beginning of my desire to extend advocacy for women and women's issues to boys and men.

Men and women are biologically different, there is a wide consensus on that. However, the question becomes, to what extent does this sexual difference extend and at what point does it cease to be ‘natural’ but a series of socio-culturally constructed ideas and traditions that disadvantage and subjugate women?

Does the difference extend to gender roles among siblings, between husband and wife in the home, to the school where female teachers take up different roles from their male counterparts, where girls have different roles than boys? Does it extend to the gender gaps we see in women’s political and economic participation? Is there such a thing as the rightful role for women in society – and if there is, who defines it? If we use the bible, whose interpretation do we use and are we sensitive to contexts and times in which it was written. If we use culture, whose culture do we use? And if the merit to the cultural argument is the length of time through which the traditional norms have survived, does that mean if something exists for a long time it should never be questioned? 

For the purposes of clarity, I want to make it abundantly clear that these views and opinions are my own (supported by data in some instances) and are largely informed by my readings. I do not claim to speak for Zimbabwean women or to explain their issues for them, a lived experience of a (Zimbabwean) woman is something I could never have! 

There are many ways of understanding feminism (I will not be giving a definition, because frankly I do not think there is one that is universal enough)– the best is to read (and think) for yourself, to engage cross cultural ideas about women, without of course neglecting our own tales, traditions and mythical legends. I am skeptical of this method nonetheless; that we should comb through our own history to dismantle the shackles that continue to discourage and disadvantage women – women may either never feature or feature in a way that reinforces the same patriarchal cultures that are problematic in the quest for equality. Also, learning from other histories and from other women from other parts of the world is not dis-privileging of our culture, but the same way other tools of emancipation like political and educational systems could be borrowed from other cultures and naturalized, so can tools of women’s emancipation and feminist schools of thought. 

I do not believe that there is a single, homogeneous Zimbabwean tradition, but that throughout time, due to differences in socio-politico-economic and religious reasons, women have not been treated the same as men. I will provide data to substantiate this claim. 

One may believe that feminism is opposed to “our culture” or that it disregards the institution of the family as prescribed in the bible or incompatible with “our values.” If I may, I suggest that we start saying such statements with an understanding of the subjectivity which grounds our opinions – in so far as the question of women (or any other socio-political issue) is concerned.

I do not believe that anyone can claim to speak for “us” or the whole of our Zimbabwean Society. If there exists such a thing as a Zimbabwean Society or community, and we are just not a bunch of individuals who, by chance, were born in an arbitrarily drawn territorial country called Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe does not have a singular, all-encompassing identity or culture. 

The same would be apply to people who say “feminism” is incompatible with our “African culture?” What is “our African culture”? 

This blog will show you how feminism is not just for women and by women, and how thinking about feminism or supporting feminist ideas and schools of thought is not at all feminizing and emasculating to men.  On the contrary, addressing the position and treatment of women, we take key steps towards growing strong civil society. Addressing women’s subjugation, exclusion and sidelining are as political and important to the nation’s political and economic development as say, unemployment, corruption, cronyism etc.

I will not necessarily be answering questions in this blog, but asking them, with the intention of sparking discourse and engagement. The first step in any movement towards a better and more equitable society is simply asking why?

The last census (2022) showed that 52% (7,891,035) of the population of Zimbabwe were women, while 48% (7,287,922) were men. The 2023 Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s report shows that of the 6,623,511 registered voters 3,555,061 (53.67%) were female and 3,069,450 (46.33%) were male. Women constitute a significant majority both demographically and electorally. However, the participation of women as standing candidates in the 2023 General election was very low. In this blog I have only chosen to present the Presidential, National Assembly and Local Authority.

In both the local Authority and the National Assembly women constituted very low percentages, 9.36% and 15.26% of the total candidates, respectively. The most revolutionary question to ask is “why?” Why did we have a significantly low number of women standing for parliament and local authorities? Is it because parties have a preference for men in their recruitment processes?  Is politics a game for men? Are men better suited as political candidates than women? What difference, for women, girls and the rest of society, would it make if more women stood for elections and actually won?

In education, Females constituted higher proportions of persons who ever attended school with 52.7 percent in urban areas and 51.2 percent in rural areas.  However, more females (31.6%) than males (13%) have never attended school because education “is not considered as valuable”. And of the 6,882,684 persons of school going age (4-24), only 71.4% were attending school – a higher proportion of males (72%) was attending schools than females (70.3%). Males and females cited common reasons for leaving school, however, with varying proportions. The results showed that 51.6 percent of the males left school due to financial constraints, compared to 38.9 percent for females. Marriage/pregnancy-related reasons were cited more among females (31.7%) than males (3.0%). Nationally, the literacy rate was higher for males (95.1%) than females (92.3). Perhaps this section here is not so much about looking at boys and girls as distinct, but that as a nation we have serious problems when it comes to an increasing number of people not affording to go to school and no longer valuing education (and women, young girls suffer more.) If we were to conduct another survey right now, would we find that the situation has gotten better or worse? 

In 2022, the main area of specialisation for males was the Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction field with 25 percent while for females it was Education with 27.6 percent. More men than women specialised in Mathematics, Natural Sciences and statistics, more men than women, why?  Do men naturally gravitate towards certain fields of specialization than women, and in the context of scarce resources, what opportunities are made available to men more than women? Labour force participation was lower in females than males across all age groups. Labour force participation was lower in females than males across all age groups. For example, In the 35 to 39 age group, 58.4 percent of males and 36.0 percent females were participating in labour force. A total of 2,501,758 persons were currently employed of whom 62.5 percent were male and 37.5 were female. Are men more suited for the labour force than women? Do we have employment structures and opportunities that disproportionately favour male workers than female workers? Are there other things that encumber women from participating in the labour force – like child rearing and care work for the sick and elderly (which they do not get paid for – should they be)? And if women are significantly less employed and participate less in the labour force does this mean they are left completely at the mercy of their husbands and partners – what implications does that have for female liberty? 

The list of questions is endless and so are the indicators in which women are lagging behind compared to men. Never should we ever stop asking questions and seeking to redress this. That we should talk more about the kinds of implications seeking to hold fast to unchanging gender roles have on women’s lives! Ultimately, when it comes to the lived experiences of women, which cannot be captured by data and surveys, let us normalize letting women speak for themselves – and start seeing women who are vocal and assertive less as threats, but as vital agents of change and transformation in our homes and societies. 

Find attached below the two main sources of the data presented in the blog.