…Gender bias still affects women in politics
Rutendo Chirume
Media watchdog Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) has challenged media practitioners to take leading role in doing away with gender entrenched stereotypes in politics saying women constituted only 33.2 percent in terms of representation during the recently held March 26 by-elections, with their male counterparts accounting for 66,8 percent in the national assembly while out of 108 candidates in the local authority, only 15 percent were women.
Addressing journalists during a review of the by-elections at Chevron Hotel on April 01, VMCZ Executive Director Loughty Dube, tasked the media to do thorough job by tilting gender coverage through media representation on women and said there is also need to encourage political parties to field more female candidates.
“Out of 118 candidates only, 15 percent were women and in Masvingo province only four women were fielded which shows the amount of work journalists have to do to ensure women are seen more in politics. There is need to tilt gender coverage by the media thus inquiring why political parties are failing to field more women candidates. As the media, you should interrogate issues of gender balance within political parties if we are to achieve gender equity and do away with entrenched stereotypes,” said Dube.
An analysis by a media practitioner Doctor Last Alfandika said out of 15 political parties which contested in by-elections, only four featured in the media and of those less female politicians had less published stories as compared to men which shows that women and men are treated differently by the media.
“Out of 15 political parties that contested in the by-elections, three featured mainly in the media while the fourth, Labour Economists and African Democrats (LEAD) featured here and there as compared to ZANU PF, CCC and MDC-Alliance. 80 percent of the voices represented amongst the contenders were male which also showed that media followed male candidates than female. Even in the media structure, 75 percent or more are male journalists which may have a great impact on gender coverage given the statistics issues of women will be secondary to them. Men are still dominant in the media, elections and these differences have great impact on political succession because at the end of the day we have less female politicians with less published stories,” said Dr Alfandika.
A brief comparison with the 2018 elections shows that the level of women’s participation as candidates for the direct National Assembly seats has remained stagnant whilst a 2017 study by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) revealed that 74 percent of women said they were not interested in participating in elections for fear of violence, campaign financing and gender bias thus effectively shutting the door to public offices for women.
Centre for Gender and Community Development in Zimbabwe (CGCDZ) Programmes Manager Chidaushe Mudadi said there must be a fund from the political parties and government which should be specifically meant to support women in politics as well as reserving seats in constituencies and local authority specifically for women in order to deal with issues of gender parity to achieve gender equity.
“In order to achieve gender equity in politics, there must be a policy implementation which will see women who want to participate in politics get funding from their political parties and government for their campaigns because lack of funds is one of the main reasons which stops women from taking part. Secondly, we must set aside wards and constituencies meant for women, that way we know already that women are represented. Also considering that as a country we have more women than man, they should be able to support each other in what they do, women for women that kind of a thing,” said Mudadi.
Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) Masvingo chapter chairperson Joyce Mhungu also suggested that there must be a policy implementation which gives women a particular number of seats in politics.
“We should come up with a policy which allows women to hold seats in politics because face to face, women are always undermined and due to the patriarchal society, women are still regarded as weak and not fit to participate in politics. There if we come up with a policy, then it means we are guaranteed of equal entry into politics. But there must be policy enforcement to ensure that we are represented because policy without enforcement is just like a toothless dog which is what we have been doing over the years,” said Mhungu.
In Zimbabwe, women in politics continue to be marginalised by structural deformities embedded in cultural, social, religious and political stereotypes.
