The small service centre of Epworth, one of the capital Harare, Zimbabwe, high-density neighbourhood, is already bustling with open pick-up truckers touting for passengers –mostly women traders – going to the market.
And Eve Mungate is up at the first sight of dawn and getting ready to join other women on the road to the wholesale fresh produce market across town.
But before leaving the 37-year-old mother of four gives her two teenage girls instructions to also be up and fetch water from the borehole for their dad to bath and prepare breakfast for the young siblings to take to school.
“Get bus fare from your dad but don’t leave before I return!” she shouts as she briskly walks to join her colleagues on the road.
For Epworth, 14 kilometres south-east of the capital, this is common fare at dawn, and in like communities where water is from boreholes is the norm, women and young girls – some as young as 10 – spend considerably more time fetching water or vending on the streets. And this is on top of doing household chores and carework.
“That’s the way it is,” most women say, pointing this is part of part of culture and learning to be a real woman and not a broiler!” (A cage-raised chicken raised for meat as opposed to a free-range “roadrunner” that scavenges for its own food and is tougher than the broiler variety.)
That, says Varaidzo Zhou from Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE), is at the heart of the matter.
WALPE is an organisation based in the country whose main goal is to fight for the equal representation of women in public leadership positions, from local age-old and negative beliefs.
The unequal distribution of work – work that is essential for families and households to thrive – affects and limits women’s career choices and economic empowerment, notes Zhou.
WALPE works to advance knowledge and deepen the capacity of women who want to successfully run for public office elected positions and also seeks to provide them with practical skills training for such.
Zhou, who is responsible for Gender and Recruitment, explains several reasons why women carry relatively heavier loads.
“This heavy load on women’s shoulders curtails their time for more social and political participation,” she says, adding that women need to realize that even if the Zimbabwean women came of age at Independence (1980) – from being perpetual minors – a lot still needs to be done.
Although the gender gap in formal employment may have narrowed somewhat as more women have entered the job market, it is the issue of unappreciated and unpaid housework and carework that is holding them back and weighing them down from any prospects of elevation!
And Thando Makubaza, programmes development and fundraising manager at Padare/Enkundleni, Men’s Forum on Gender, says “it is unlikely that a significant further shift can occur without public policies that better support families with unpaid care work responsibilities”.
Speaking to The Afronews on the sidelines of a recent joint summit with WALPE and Oxfam, Makubaza disclosed results of an Unpaid Care and Domestic Work project they launched in 2013 in three districts in the country “that we believe has been an eye-opener” to some of our partners.
That, emphasises Makubaza, has played a key role in changing perceptions of unpaid domestic work by women.
“Women and households got basic basic equipment and technologies for domestic use like solar gadgets, wood-saving stores and wheelbarrows,” she says, explaining that that what came out was life-changing “as we started to have boreholes, toilets, waiting rooms and other infrastructural projects!”
“The impact was time-saving and an improvement of quality of life which is very critical in households and for families,” says Makubaza, adding: “Prior to this there was little or less concern over the unpaid work but thereafter, most men’s groups – especially during the Covid-19 lockdown – started to appreciate women’s work as it benefits the family.”
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) concurs, informing that they have started reviewing and reforming some of their policies across the board to increase gender equality.
“It looks there is positive momentum right now with the accent on decent work programmes, progressive programmes partnerships and collaborations,” says a union member at the meeting, adding that women do all sorts of jobs vital to our economy – in agriculture, industry and especially in the informal sector – and all this is in addition to the expected domestic housework!”
And Stella Sande, a street vendor (hawker) in downtown Harare, says working in the informal sector with a baby on your back is not a Sunday stroll in the park!
“I can’t leave the baby at home all alone as I have to be on the street at sunrise and I am back at dusk,” she recounts her day in the life of a street vendor.
WALPE ‘s Zhou emphasizes that increasing societal investments in carework that support working women and allows them adequate time to contribute to the well-being of households, communities and societies is critical for the country to attain its vision of a high middle income economy by 2030.
Addressing gender inequality and women’s empowerment is integral to development, she says.
“And no community or economy can reach its full potential without the full and equal participation of all members in its society.”
