Gender affirmative action and gender equality in Zimbabwe: case study of Southdowns suburb, Gweru.

Abstract

Gender equality is a concept that many feminist and sympathizers the world over have been trying to achieve over the past five decades. Various measures to bring about this new kind of concept have been put forward including legislation, mainstreaming, gender affirmative action just to mention a few. But despite all the efforts and resources employed in endeavouring to achieve it, gender equality remains fantasy. The case of Zimbabwe is no different…The issue of gender equality is a matter of social equity (Beijing Conference 1995) and as such it should be dealt with seriously. John Stuart Mill in his writing Subjection of Women(1869) highlighted that achieving gender equality leads to development of society and therefore Zimbabwe as a nation has also joined the rest of the world in the search for gender equality. The Zimbabwean government has adopted gender based affirmative action as its central contrivance to proffer gender equality. But however, 22 years after its inception, the policy’s performance is dismal. In the search gender for gender equality, scholars argue affirmative action is useless. One wonders why it is gender activists’ major tool to be used in achieving gender equality (Onsongo 2009)