Reinforcing the dignity and human rights of all is fundamental to Matabeleland’s developmental goals. The ability to constantly change to redefine our social, economic, and political limits will be paramount to gender mainstreaming and gender competency objectives. Zimbabwe independence has not delivered on its promise for the greater equity for all. Instead, it has exacerbated pre-existing economic, educational, and health disparities that disproportionately impacted women and girls in Matabeleland long before the end of colonial rule.
Zimbabwe politics is a structured deception shaped by men’s uncanny obsession with power; it is a populist doctrine that indulges audiences with political mileage, not necessarily the right audiences. Important but electorally unpopular social issues of gender equity are systematically relegated to optional choices and ignored. There is chronic lack of enthusiasm and investment in gender equity and equality. The prevailing misogynistic overview is that the disadvantaged constituency is largely women and girls thus, not deemed an immediate, if real, threat to power.
The reality is that gender inequity and inequality are a stain in Matabeleland’s socioeconomic and political space; this is a challenge that needs to be confronted aggressively. Today, we occupy a different social space from that of generations before us; we live in an information and technology age that widens and deepens our world understanding. Thus, we hold ourselves not only to a different moral standard but to the highest, and to the idea that every one of us is equal in dignity and deserves to be treated equally.
While we respect our culture and traditions, we understand their implications on gender equality and socioeconomic progress. Gender mainstreaming as a process will help society intentionally focus on gender issues, identify customs that entrench gender inequity and evaluate policies to rebuild better communities.
In a world narrative predetermined by men, systemic barriers to women empowerment become the hallmark, and we must commit to tearing these down. It is essential that our endeavour to promote equity and equality in society recognises that men and women are different, and their needs are different and so will be the support they require to optimise their potential. This will mean greater investment in traditionally disadvantaged groups such as women to enable their competitiveness in various sectors of their communities.
Self-critique is critical to self-improvement; we can see in the past; we have a clear understanding of its unsavoury outcomes to sections of our society and have determined we are not going back. Fortunately, we also can see the future we desire, and we will do everything in our power to enable gender equity and equality. We understand that if any section of our society is suppressed, everyone is affected. Those elements of our customs whose unintended outcome have been to disadvantage women need be rid of.
Just like any change, dismantling generations old ideas will be difficult, it will require a bold, informed, and united approach—a commitment to build better institutions that will change the status quo that is failing women and girls.
Lazy politics will ignore gender issues, but the impact cannot be wished away. Conduct that, under the veil of culture, sanitizes institutions that promote abuse of women in our communities must be called out. Gender-based violence is endemic in various spheres of our society and is indicated in many other conflicts.
Underrepresentation of women at decision-making level is the single most significant factor in gender inequity and inequality across entire communities. Marginalised from decision-making platforms, women have little input on vital institutions governing our communities – division of labour, fundamental labour practices, employment rights, sexual health, property rights, among other issues.
We argue that gender equity and equality are imperative to strengthening our communities and economy. When, in the name of culture, fundamental rights are withdrawn from over 50 percent of your constituency, progress becomes elusive. We cannot ignore the significance of gender equity and equality for the economic security, safety, health, and well-being of women and girls in Matabeleland.
To protect our communities from collapse, we must eradicate the disabling current rules of engagement; these are a masculine narrative inclined towards favouring men’s interests over women’s and community needs. The target of our new world order must be the implementation of policies that optimise women and girls’ abilities, or they will be lost to society. Gender mainstreaming is an essential process in appreciating gendered inequity and inspiring informed structural transformation of the socioeconomic and political space of Matabeleland to remove all structural barriers to the empowerment of women and communities. Focus must be a world where every person has equal access to opportunity; where their safety and security are guaranteed; where their bodily autonomy is respected, and where they are treated equitably and fairly in all spaces within their communities.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 