adminHind Siam Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) has raised concern over the low participation of women in politics and decision-making.
Addressing journalists at a breakfast meeting in Harare recently, ZGC chairperson Commissioner Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe said Zimbabwe had ratified several international and regional frameworks that promote women participation in politics and decision-making, but women remained marginalised.
“While the Constitution provides a set of commitments to ensure women’s active and equal participation in electoral processes, women continue to be marginalised in politics.
“This is also despite the country having adopted an engendered Constitution and ratified several International and Regional frameworks, which promote the equal participation of women in political and decision-making processes such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development,” she said.
ZGC held the meeting to discuss the importance of gender equality and the accurate portrayal of gender equality in the media.
Comm Mukahanana-Sangarwe said the organisation was interested in enhancing the media’s appreciation of the constitutional provisions that underlie the fundamental principles of gender equality as a human right, to set the context and tone for gender sensitive reporting before, during and after the electoral process, to make a case for the amplification of the women’s voices as voters and as candidates and to interest participating journalists to embed and embrace human rights based approach in their work.
“The results of the recently held Zanu-PF primary elections where, of the 190 candidates for the National Assembly only 21 of them are female, paints the picture of the current situation in terms of gender equality and how much of the Constitution is being implemented in that regard.”
A gender and media survey by Gender Links in 2015, showed that women’s voices are mostly heard in “soft” areas like gender equality, gender violence, children, sex and sexuality while they are least heard in areas like sports, politics, and business.
“The research shows that women politicians receive more coverage on their appearance, sex, private life and family life. These practices contradict the principles of equal treatment that should apply to both genders.
“If the coverage of women in politics is any different to that of men then it fuels the risk that topics considered as ‘hard news’ will continue to be associated with men,” she said.
Participants said more women needed to be assigned in managerial positions in newsrooms and that way the portrayal of women would not be under negative light.
“The commission is also advocating for more women occupying senior management positions in the newsrooms. The Glass Ceiling Study (2009) which explored the institutional composition of media houses in southern Africa, revealed that in the region, women make up only 23 percent of those in top management. The study also revealed that more men than women are editors. The commission will soon conduct baseline survey to ascertain the level of women in decision making in both private and public media houses,” she said.
Some journalists pointed out that while they were interested in increasing the coverage of women, the women were reluctant to give information and in most cases took too long to respond to questions when journalists had deadlines to meet.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter