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Source: AfricaNews
In the African context, traditional leadership is a preserve of males while women are restricted to the kitchen and the house chores. It is not by design that women find themselves in such marginalized areas of everyday lives but the African society has socialised them into believing that they are subordinated to their male counterparts.
It was unheard of that in the African culture there can be a female traditional leader or even in the political sense and up to this day it still remains a taboo in some cultures to have a female leader while there is a slight appreciation of the dynamic nature of culture.
Despite the marginalization of women in Africa and the world at large, Africa has joined the world in the field of gender equality where a sizable number of females are now involved in politics.
Through the victory of Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the 2005 election before assuming office in January 2006, Africa joined the rest of the world in as far as gender equality and representation are concerned raising the hope of fellow African female politicians who prior have been in the peripheries of the political playfields.
In Zimbabwe, the appointment of Amai Joice Mujuru to the post of the vice president after competing with Emerson Munangagwa who by then was the minister of rural housing and social amenities in December 2004 also gave hope for the local female politicians as they felt represented at the highest level.
However there has been a considerable challenge for the Zimbabwean women who might have shown a desire to join the traditional leadership structures as it remains an area preserved for men and is passed over from one generation to the next only through an appointment (sometimes it is a family decision).
A Zanu (PF) female politician, Monica Mutsvangwa at one moment highlighted how the government has since independence failed to empower women despite enacting very sound legislative pieces which translated to very sound policies.
“Since independence we have had about seventeen acts of parliament in the house of assembly but the implementation part of it has been a different issue. All these acts of parliament are just nothing without implementation, we should have had every one woman of Zimbabwe empowered by now,” said Mutsvangwa.
According to the global gender gap report released by the World Economic Forum, Zimbabwe was ranked number 92 in 2010 down from number 95 in 2009 after showing a considerable rise in the participation of women in politics where Zimbabwe was ranked 76 in 2006 rising sharply to number 88 and 92 in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
Rwanda has the world's highest ratio of women in parliament with 49 percent of them while Africa has eleven of the 50 legislatures with the most female members in Africa in the world are from Africa.
Some governments have introduced systems of the involvement of females in the political affairs based on quota systems with Lesotho having a one third female to male parliamentary quota.
In Africa, there are three main quota systems which include Constitutional quotas where a country has a constitutional provision in countries like Burkina Faso and Uganda reserving seats in national parliament for women while others like Sudan have an Election Law Quotas with provisions in the in the national legislation with the third one being the Political Party Quotas where parties have internal mechanisms to include a certain percentage of women in its structures.
However in Zimbabwe there are no laid down policies rooted in either the constitution or the legislation that sets certain percentages for women save for the fact that the country is a signatory of SADC Protocol on Gender and Development which the country is forced to follow.
However the use of quotas should never be an end in itself but a means to an end with the quota system supposed to be a kick-start for the female participation in politics.
“Quotas should only be there to encourage other females to actively participate in politics and not be an end in itself,” said a University student Margaret Munochivei.
Currently Zimbabwe has a total of 268 chiefs five of which are females while out of 474 headmen, four are female an indication that it is very much possible to have female traditional leaders along with female politicians in the leadership structures in an era where traditional leaders also form part of the upper house of assembly.
However after the 2008 election, only 30 of the 210 house of assembly were women making up about 14, 29% while 20 of the 60 senators were women making up to 33% of the total. However of no female chiefs were appointed to the senate despite the president having appointed 18 of the traditional leaders to the upper house.
In country demographics, the male to female ratio in Zimbabwe is 52 to 48 in favour of women although they remain underrepresented. The country has mainly offered lip service to the welfare of women in Zimbabwe despite sound women empowerment policies which has lacked implementation since independence.
Despite the marginalization of women in Africa and the world at large, Africa has joined the world in the field of gender equality where a sizable number of females are now involved in politics.
Through the victory of Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the 2005 election before assuming office in January 2006, Africa joined the rest of the world in as far as gender equality and representation are concerned raising the hope of fellow African female politicians who prior have been in the peripheries of the political playfields.
In Zimbabwe, the appointment of Amai Joice Mujuru to the post of the vice president after competing with Emerson Munangagwa who by then was the minister of rural housing and social amenities in December 2004 also gave hope for the local female politicians as they felt represented at the highest level.
However there has been a considerable challenge for the Zimbabwean women who might have shown a desire to join the traditional leadership structures as it remains an area preserved for men and is passed over from one generation to the next only through an appointment (sometimes it is a family decision).
A Zanu (PF) female politician, Monica Mutsvangwa at one moment highlighted how the government has since independence failed to empower women despite enacting very sound legislative pieces which translated to very sound policies.
“Since independence we have had about seventeen acts of parliament in the house of assembly but the implementation part of it has been a different issue. All these acts of parliament are just nothing without implementation, we should have had every one woman of Zimbabwe empowered by now,” said Mutsvangwa.
According to the global gender gap report released by the World Economic Forum, Zimbabwe was ranked number 92 in 2010 down from number 95 in 2009 after showing a considerable rise in the participation of women in politics where Zimbabwe was ranked 76 in 2006 rising sharply to number 88 and 92 in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
Rwanda has the world's highest ratio of women in parliament with 49 percent of them while Africa has eleven of the 50 legislatures with the most female members in Africa in the world are from Africa.
Some governments have introduced systems of the involvement of females in the political affairs based on quota systems with Lesotho having a one third female to male parliamentary quota.
In Africa, there are three main quota systems which include Constitutional quotas where a country has a constitutional provision in countries like Burkina Faso and Uganda reserving seats in national parliament for women while others like Sudan have an Election Law Quotas with provisions in the in the national legislation with the third one being the Political Party Quotas where parties have internal mechanisms to include a certain percentage of women in its structures.
However in Zimbabwe there are no laid down policies rooted in either the constitution or the legislation that sets certain percentages for women save for the fact that the country is a signatory of SADC Protocol on Gender and Development which the country is forced to follow.
However the use of quotas should never be an end in itself but a means to an end with the quota system supposed to be a kick-start for the female participation in politics.
“Quotas should only be there to encourage other females to actively participate in politics and not be an end in itself,” said a University student Margaret Munochivei.
Currently Zimbabwe has a total of 268 chiefs five of which are females while out of 474 headmen, four are female an indication that it is very much possible to have female traditional leaders along with female politicians in the leadership structures in an era where traditional leaders also form part of the upper house of assembly.
However after the 2008 election, only 30 of the 210 house of assembly were women making up about 14, 29% while 20 of the 60 senators were women making up to 33% of the total. However of no female chiefs were appointed to the senate despite the president having appointed 18 of the traditional leaders to the upper house.
In country demographics, the male to female ratio in Zimbabwe is 52 to 48 in favour of women although they remain underrepresented. The country has mainly offered lip service to the welfare of women in Zimbabwe despite sound women empowerment policies which has lacked implementation since independence.
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