Exploit constitution, women urged

Minister Olivia Muchena said this at the “Women Get on Board” seminar held in Harare yesterday.
The seminar, whose aim was to interogate the barriers that hinder women’s participation in executive and board leadership positions, was organised by Proweb, Wabaz, Chamber of Mines, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and the Sweden-Zimbabwe private sector corporation.

“From now on, we will have a constitution-based accountability scorecard on gender parity for public and private institutions. We want to use legislation and policy in order to empower women on how to use that space created by legislation and policy,” she said.
She said Government was committed to empowering women so that they can understand their relevance in their various spheres of influence.

“Until women understand the situation they are in, they will keep on pointing out the problem not strategising to get out of the situation. We as a ministry are ready to co-operate but women need to prepare themselves so that they can move from tokenism to gender parity. Gender is about men and women creating a just society where we are equal partners in development and relevance,” Minister Muchena added.

Addressing delegates at the same event, Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network executive director Mrs Naome Chimbetete said there are not enough women sitting at tables where decisions are being made.
She said a survey carried out by her organisation had shown that there was only 16,9 percent representation of women in leadership positions in companies that are listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

There was a 10,6 percent representation of women in state enterprises and parastatals while 19 percent were in local government.
The survey showed that there were more women in management positions within Government than in other sectors. Public service principal directors, directors and deputy directors had 74 percent, 67 percent and 76 percent respectively being women.

“Women ‘leave before they leave’, they take themselves out of the running for career development because they want to have families yet they have to lean in not pull out for them to be noticed,” Mrs Chimbetete said.
She said women who had reached the top had to help other women who were still trying to climb the ladder so that there could be more women in leadership roles.

“Women who serve on an all-male board of directors are usually perceived as representing ‘all women’ in her role,” she added.
She said those women should take the advantage and try to rope in more women on those boards so that there can be a gender balance in corporate. Mrs Chimbetete urged women in leadership positions to mentor other women so that they can create a larger database of women capable of filling in the leadership positions when they arise.