Women are own liberators
IF more Zimbabwean women would begin to be agents of the change they want to see, their economic status would improve immensely.
Women should liberate themselves from the social, economic and cultural barriers that hinder their development. The economy and development of Zimbabwe lies in the hands of women as they are statistically more than men in population at 52 percent. If you empower a woman you empower a nation.
Zimbabwe’s informal sector is driven by more women than men. I will speak in my own capacity as a member of the Harare Chamber of Small Medium Enterprises and the projects manager of the Harare Informal Traders’ Council. I joined the sector from an association I belonged to during the times I traded going to China to buy goods and sell at a flea market and a small shop I owned back then.
There were a lot of women then in the informal sector and even more so now. In one meeting, someone asked, “What is the difference between the informal sector and small to medium enterprises (SME’s)?” I had to give a simple explanation that, “SME’S are either registered with a certificate of incorporation and operating from a formal business place on a regular basis unlike the informal trader who might be here today and nowhere tomorrow, or either selling tomatoes because they are in season and whatever goes the next day, they are not registered and strive for the moment and because of a crisis.”
The Harare Chamber of SMEs is the board that is supposed to represent all the SMEs in Harare. The organisation represents the needs of the people and is supposed to bring about change to the sector. What I realised was in the Informal Sector Board, I am the only woman in the executive board and in the Chamber; we had to fight to have women elected into the executive board. All top positions are occupied by men and powerful positions are circulated within themselves. Zimbabwe in its attitudes and set up is still a patriarchal society which continues to deny women equal opportunities.
Women have to fight for positions of power and control in the private sphere and even in the public sphere. Stereotypical mindsets of men that women are useless and voiceless continue to prevail in these spaces hence not much consultation from women is done when developmental programmes are being put in place, yet it is very important to foster women into entrepreneurship.
Women are key to unlocking the economic potential and development of Zimbabwe and they need to be taken seriously. Women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment is a good vehicle to achieve growth and reduce poverty. However, the multiple roles of women hinder their progress and sometimes limit them from rising up as fast as their male counterparts. Development is not possible without participation of women in decision making positions. More women should take up top positions and break the “glass ceilings” that men have created in the public sphere. Even though Zimbabwean women are hard working, educated and skilled, they are constantly denied opportunities and are looked down upon.
Banks deny women credit loans as they have no collateral and are not bankable. Access to capital to grow their businesses is always a challenge and lack of knowledge of skills and technology also hinders women from moving forward. It is time financial institutions gave women equipment and machinery as a way of allowing them to benefit from loan schemes. In most cases amounts as little as $300 are given to start up businesses, what kind of business would really grow from such an amount, and this is payable in three months with interest. One wonders what kind of business wiould have immediate returns. This model of assistance does not develop the woman but only increases her problems and burdens and creates more informal business models.
Micro financiers should introduce small machinery for manufacturing such as brick moulding machines, peanut butter making machines, gas grillers, doughnut making machines, detergent machines, and allow women to purchase them in order to have viable businesses that can repay the loans given towards the machines. These machines should be their collateral until they are paid off, in that way a woman would be empowered. Such items should be secured for women instead of giving them cash, this is in the hope of growing women in business and moving them from the mentality of just merely buying and selling to being producers who can make their own products and even export to other countries.
In the agricultural sector, a lot of women are farm labourers only a few own the land, as agriculture is the backbone of Zimbabwe it would be very important for government to allocate women more land and inputs directly. Men are the ones who receive inputs such as tractors and diesel in their names. In most cases, inputs are sold and not utilised to benefit the farm in any way and women have no say. Men as the heads of households, have prestige and more rights to land than women. Women’s contribution to agricultural production has a multiplying effect on the development of the country and emancipation of women. It is clear that even from the onset, most of the agricultural surplus was produced by women although it was controlled by men. When the cheque comes from the Grain Marketing Board or Tobacco Auction floors the father of the home has the power to control what the money does, leaving women voiceless in the fruits of their labour.
Although there has been a turn where women in Zimbabwe are realising that they should take part in economic growth, there are too many challenges that hinder their development, the gender dynamics always play a role in the development processes.
Women have also taken an opportunity in mining where they have been allocated claims and some are mining as groups, it is a challenge for most to get the relevant equipment for mining as it is costly and finances are scarce, most partners also want to partner with men.
A research by the World Bank highlighted that societies that discriminate by gender tend to experience less rapid economic growth and poverty reduction than societies that treat males and females more equally, and that social gender disparities produce economically inefficient outcomes. Women in Zimbabwe should not just be viewed as reliable, productive and cheap labour force but they should also be viewed as the right vehicle for bringing a change and a force worth investing in.
The recognition of women as hardworking, influential, productive and efficient distributors of services and goods within the household and country in general should be enough reason to elevate women to positions of power and decision making where they will be able to contribute to innovative and sustainable economic development of the people of Zimbabwe as a whole without putting personal interests first. Women are known to be selfless and they have seen Zimbabwe through most of its toughest times.
When they were food shortages in the country, women were the ones crossing borders and bringing food to the table. Even in the toughest times, it is the women who stay home and look after the family while men migrate to seek greener pastures. Hence the only bold change we can make is to change a woman’s life in order to change the nation.
Agnes Magunje is a gender activist. She is driven by women’s empowerment, a voice of the voiceless. She is currently Studying Women and Gender Studies at Women’s University in Africa. She’s also an executive member of the Harare Chamber of SME’s and Projects Manager at Harare Informal Traders Council.