ZIMBABWE:Fears for Next Generation of Women Leaders
Zimbabwe's veteran women politicians fear there are no younger women coming up through the ranks to replace them. Measures to improve women's representation have achieved little and young women are absent from the traditional entry points into politics.
Tabitha Khumalo, deputy national spokesperson for Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party (MDC-T) says there has not been much effort in any of the country's political parties to encourage and support women in politics. Khumalo, who was a constitutional reform team leader for the MDC-T, says the drawn-out process of drafting a new constitution including nation-wide consultations with the public represents a missed opportunity.
'I am disappointed with the lack of capacitation of women during this (constitutional reform) exercise,' she told IPS. 'Political parties merely concentrated on proportional representation but neglected to say whether this would be by merit. It is not enough to say women must be allocated equal slots as men and end there,' she said.
The veteran politician says there are a few powerful and active women in Zimbabwe's politics. 'We have a handful of women like Gladys Dube, for example, who have made their mark to change the colour of both the writing of the constitution and local politics. But it is always the same women being called upon to wear different hats. So what happens when we grow old and there are no younger women to take over from us?' asks Khumalo.
(Dube is the MDC-T Senator for Mabutweni, a poor working class suburb in Bulawayo and is also the deputy chair of the Constitution Select Committee.) But she she does not see many women working their way up through the structures of political parties today.
'Some of us are from the labour movement, and ours is a road less travelled by women,' she said. 'We have been arrested and getting here has been no easy walk. I believe we still need to have more active involvement for women in national politics despite the obvious challenges.'
Khumalo says there hasn’t been any emphasis on recruiting young university-educated women into the political ranks, which has meant there is no continuity in grooming more women into Zimbabwe’s political movement. These views are echoed by Sylvia Chiume, a gender expert and academic who says the nature and history of local politics has not encouraged young women to follow that path.
'It can be seen even with student activism at tertiary colleges. Not many girls take up the gauntlet and it is known that politicians in Zimbabwe cut their teeth at university campuses fighting for students’ rights,' Chiume said.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service