Participation of Women Members of the National House of Assembly in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The political participation of women is not only a human right but key to democracy and a gender equality goal across the globe. Women’s participation in politics is in sync with international, regional, and local frameworks that mandate states and governments to take bold steps towards the gender equality goal. Zimbabwe in not an exception having ratified most of the conventions and being part of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, which has set timelines on specific milestones with regards to the equal participation of women. The inclusion of women in politics has proved to be a mammoth task for Zimbabwe as declining numbers of women being elected to parliament and council levels over the last three elections which were held in 2008, 2013 and 2018 have been witnessed. A constitutional women’s quota was introduced in Zimbabwe in 2013 as a mainstreaming strategy to close the gender gap in political participation. It was also meant to increase women’s visibility in parliament. The quota was originally meant to expire in 2023, based on the assumption that ten years on women would be ready to stand on their own. However, the increase of women in parliament has not translated into equal participation with their male colleagues. Instead, the performance of women in parliament has been questioned due to either their non-visibility or limited contributions to parliamentary debates. This is despite their increased numbers in the populace and to some extent empowerment programmes. Overwhelming literature has previously focused on women as political candidates and as the electorate. Other studies have focused on challenges in the political entry for women, while some highlight Violence against Women in Politics. There is a scarcity of studies that examine the effective participation of women in parliaments. This study sought to examine the reasons behind the ineffective participation of women members of the parliament of Zimbabwe. The study utilised the Feminist Political Theory because of its analysis of the role of gender in the political. An intersectional lens through the Intersectionality Theory was used to further understand how different contexts may cause variables to intersect leading to individual experiences and outcomes affecting women’s participation in the Parliament of Zimbabwe. Findings indicate that women parliamentarians in Zimbabwe have been affected by a myriad of challenges which include exclusion tactics, violence against women in parliament, a whipping system that stifles independent thinking, a community development fund that excludes most female parliamentarians and resultantly low self-esteem. Another key finding was a ‘He-in-She’ Ideology that only supports women believed to be backed by a man among other issues. A qualitative approach was adopted to gather data through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation of a parliamentary session. Thematic analysis using NVivo was used to analyse data making use of an inductive approach. Some of the key recommendations include: Government to set milestones for 50-50 equal participation and engage in a more holistic approach to women’s political empowerment by including other social strategies to encourage more women. Political parties were urged to adopt a selection criterion for women’s quota beneficiaries to improve the quality of participation in parliament. The Women’s Bank to relax policies to facilitate easier access to funds by women as it has a bearing on women’s ambitions to campaign for elections. The government of Zimbabwe was also called upon to mandate all registered political parties to adopt party level quotas to support women’s entry into higher echelons of political offices and through nurturing at political party level.