Gender inequality is a universal issue that affects many communities around the world, not sparing Zimbabwe.
Some examples of gender inequality in Zimbabwe's rural communities raised included but not limited to:-
Limited access to education: Girls in rural Zimbabwe were often subjected to limited access to education compared to boys. This was claimed to be attributed to cultural beliefs that prioritized boys' education over girls, as well as a lack of resources such as schools and teachers in rural areas.
Economic disparities: Women in rural Zimbabwe were often reported to be adversely affected by limited access to economic resources compared to men. This again was attributed to both cultural beliefs that prioritize male breadwinners and a lack of economic opportunities in rural areas.
Limited access to healthcare: There were also reports that women in rural Zimbabwe often had limited access to healthcare compared to men. This was blamed to inadequate clinics and medical facilities in rural areas, as well as cultural beliefs that prioritise men's health over women's.
Gender-based violence: Studies carried argues that women in rural areas were in the past subjected to gender-based violence, including domestic violence and sexual assault. Some literature argues that, this was mainly influenced by the cultural beliefs that overlook violence against women, as well as a lack of legal and social support for victims.
These are just a few examples of as many ways gender inequality manifested in rural Zimbabwe.
Of course there could be much more not mentioned by this paper.
Feminist theorists have expanded the definition of patriarchal society to describe a systemic bias against women.
General agreement was that these issues require collective efforts to address and overcome for a more equitable and just society.
I acknowledge that there were several factors that affected girls' attendance in schools in Zimbabwe in the past.
Some of these factors include cultural beliefs that prioritize boys' education over girls', early marriages, poverty, lack of access to educational resources, and inadequate school infrastructure.
Additionally, some parents may have preferred to keep their daughters at home to help with domestic chores and agro-activities.
Recent studies show that, Zimbabwe is among countries in sub-Saharan Africa with a huge problem of teenage pregnancy.
UNFPA Zimbabwe’s adolescent sexual reproductive health specialist further posits that the country has a high adolescent fertility rate of 108 per 1 000 among young women aged 15 to 19 years.
This is against average fertility rate of 101 births per 1,000 young women aged between 15 and 19 in sub-Saharan Africa.
The statistics were reported to be captured before Covid-19 pandemic.
Subsequent data indicated that there has been significant increase in teenage pregnancy during the lockdown.
Despite numerous initiatives and resources to save and protect the health and sexual rights of adolescents girls and young women, by standard there are still high statistics of unwanted pregnancy, school drop outs, abortion, and sexual violence in Zimbabwe has remain a topical public health and society challenge.
This article seeks to critically examine the reasons why teen pregnancies and school dropout seem to be still high to societal expectations regardless all the efforts and support on girl child put in place.
Over the years, Zimbabwe adopted various measures to reduce early child marriages and gender inequalities.
The government to a larger extend enacted policies and laws to protect girls from early marriage, including the legislative amendment to increase the minimum age of marriage to eighteen years.
The government and its agencies also partnered with various organizations to educate communities on the negative effects of early child marriages and promote girl child education.
This gave birth to a number of programs in partnership with other development partners that the government took on board to provide economic support to vulnerable families in an effort to discourage the practice of marrying off their daughters early and address the gender inequalities.
I am tempted to believe that perhaps there are several hidden factors that may be contributing to the rise of adolescent and teen pregnancies in Zimbabwe or rather the strategies put in place are now outdated or no longer effective.
Some of the traditional factors identified include lack of access to comprehensive sexual education, limited access to contraceptives, poverty, early marriage, cultural beliefs, and gender inequality. Addressing these traditional issues through education, access to healthcare, and community-wide efforts was deemed essential to reducing the rates of adolescent and teen pregnancies in Zimbabwe. But today I ask myself if the so called old strategies continue to effectively work or rather time to introspect and change strategies.
In recent years, the government and various organisations have made significant efforts to promote girls' education and to re-address the identified patriarchal challenges.
These include efforts to raise awareness about the importance of girls' education, policies to promote gender equality in education, and initiatives to improve access to school infrastructure and resources.
To date such efforts contributed to the increase in number of girls attending school in Zimbabwe and even those who moved to positions of power or leadership. The paper further argues that someone forgot to superintend on the efforts to balance the inequalities of girl child school enrolment to the extent that now there is more girl child population in comparison to the boy child.
All efforts are biased towards the girl child. Get to a school you find that girls are more than boys.
Support in form of school fees, uniforms stationery, sustainable boarding facilities are extended to girls not boys.
Boys are struggling to raise these school basic requirements therefore majority dropping and resorting to artisanal mining and drugs.
Girls will be neatly dressed while boys are in a sorry state.
Only the cash strapped Beam [Basic Education Assisted Module] is available for the few lucky boys.
Beam is a national school assistance programme which was launched by the government of Zimbabwe in 2001 to assist orphans and vulnerable children.
I further argue that, the focus on promoting gender equality and empowering girls in Zimbabwe schools looks like necessarily sidelining boy child.
In fact, strategies must benefit both genders by creating a more inclusive and equitable society.
Addressing issues such as early marriage, gender-based violence, and access to education and healthcare should be seen to be benefit boys and girls alike.
It's important to remember that gender equality is not a zero-sum game where one gender's success comes at the expense of the others.
Rather, it's about ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential.
This article argues that the continuous noticeable omission of young boys or men in the campaign against this menace could be a long-life impediment to the realization of gender equality.
The situation obtaining on the ground now is that, the country seem to have missed the equilibrium.
Boys are slowly exposed to vulnerable circumstances that existed for women before.
Let us be careful to not create another inequality this time with boys and young men being the victims.
I submit that equilibrium is a situation where there will be equal support extended to both boys and girl, in this context, for consideration of educational and vocational subsidies support.
My fears are that in the long term we will have more educated girls than boys.
- *Langton Mutoya is an academic under the Africa University. Mobile +263 772 702 361 and email mutoya2007@yahoo.com. Views of this article are purely academic based on the passion for adolescents and young people equal opportunities support.