tawandamusarurwa
Editor’s Brief
Victoria Ruzvidzo
Hats off to women in all spheres and all stations of life as we celebrate their achievements and spotlight their struggles this month.
The 112th International Women’s Day also falls on Wednesday the 8th. The excitement is palpable. Women ought to be celebrated, indeed!
And men too! Many of them stand in support of women and a few that remain unconvinced will surely come to the party. There is no going back on gender equality and equity.
There is this speaker who referred to a man as a she in a presentation. The audience collectively gasped. How could a well spoken man like the said speaker make that mistake? In a quick comeback, he said he had referred to him as a she because he possessed the admirable qualities of the female human species!
The grave mistake was buried in an uproar of laughter from the audience. While this was clearly a quick-on-the-feet cover up, it also highlights that women have a multitude of irresistible attributes.
March is a month that women ideally look at how far they have come, the achievements under their belt and equally crucial, the milestones which lie ahead.
Women typically nurture, develop, consolidate, guide, inspire, protect and sacrifice. They are, in a lot of ways, the backbone of society. This is a global phenomenon.
They have such inherent potential in them which is undeniable. In Shona, it is said ‘musha mukadzi’. Loosely translated this means that homes exist on the basis of women’s contributions. And this is easy to see, if we look around us.
Wives contribute infinitely to the welfare and well-being of families. They oversee the running of household, they are directly involved in ensuring that all is in order. Women do the domestic chores too. They take care of the children as much as they do their husbands.
Women are gifted multi-taskers. As they fulfil these fiduciary domestic roles, they also have professional ones. At times, the menfolk are oblivious to these or is that it is consciously or sub-consciously suppressed.
The history of women in general is replete with harrowing experiences of discrimination and disenfranchisement. Women were typically not even allowed to vote, for instance.
In homes, they could not even express opinions, however well-meaning. Women could not get employed at one stage, being confined to the home.
It was also inconceivable for women to occupy senior or managerial positions. It was anathema in years gone by. Those who found work, if they were fortunate enough to, were only paid a fraction of what men got.
It is against such a background that we applaud the collective progression of the fairer sex. Seemingly insurmountable mountains have been scaled, sharp bends negotiated and deep rivers crossed.
The journey has been arduous. I guess nothing worth it ever comes easy. And in having to overcome formidable challenges, women have demonstrated unmatched resoluteness and fortitude. We have earned our place on the table.
In the corporate world, we see women increasingly rising to senior positions. We have women managers, finance directors, general managers and chief executive officers. We also see women being board chairpersons.
These achievements did not come on a silver platter. Women often have to work 1o times harder to achieve what their male counterparts have. There is often a bias against women, but even with that, admirable traction has been achieved.
Boards which have three or more women globally, perform better than those that do not. The reasons are perhaps easy to discern — women work harder, are more empathetic and quite focused. They are unflinching in their commitment, once sold to a cause.
Successes for women also spread to the entrepreneurship cause. In agriculture, for example, women constitute 70 percent of labour input. They also pay back loans advanced to them much better than men.
Zimtrade has programmes specifically designed for women in terms of training, funding, export market promotion and the establishment of key linkages. It also offers other technical and managerial support services.
Even if one goes on to the streets, evidence abound of women being engaged in one form of enterprise or another.
However, as active as they are, they have challenges ahead of them. Let us take Gender Based Violence.
It is astonishing to see that some men still think that, by virtue of their physical strength, they can batter women into submission. Such men think that violence is the panacea to whatever challenges they might have. But in trying to solve matters this way, they create multiple others.
The kind of psychological trauma gender-based violence engenders is extreme, often unbeknown by its perpetrators. Its effects threaten life and limb. It affects poor innocent souls. Furthermore, it has the spectre of prosecution with subsequent grave consequences.
Issues are easily resolvable from churches, social support networks and the police itself. To inflict physical harm on another human being is unconscionable. Is that not the reason we are higher creations than animals? We are gifted with rationality and restraint.
Men are a constituent element in women’s fight. Where there are faulty beliefs, they need to be corrected and that falls squarely on the plate of women. We don’t live in isolation with them. If anything, we are partners, both literally and metaphorically.
Some men have deep-ingrained senses of superiority and domination,borne out of the socialisation process. In their minds,they believe it is their right and role to discipline and punish. Some see violence as congruent to this belief. It is an archaic belief, prehistoric in nature.
Studies have shown that it fundamentally negates and undermines the progress humanity has made.
We applaud the concerted efforts which multiple stakeholders have exerted in ensuring greater gender harmony.
As women, we have much to do. No work is ever completely done. What are some of the areas? We need to ensure that as we bring up our children, we do so in an environment which fosters and advances equality. We give equal opportunities to them and make them realise that they are the same, notwithstanding biological differences. We need inculcate self confidence in them.
As women, we must confidently stride towards our destiny. We do not flaunt our femininity to get that job promotion or bank loan, but we rely on our capabilities. Anything to the contrary negates the goals we wish to achieve.
We do not get euphoric from past achievements. There is much to be achieved yet.
That maybe politically, where we would love greater representation, that maybe economic, where we would like to see greater contribution, that may be entrepreneurially, where greater participation is envisaged.
It may too be developmental, where we become seized with societal and national projects which advance our communities and nation.
So it is then that the entire globe sits and takes note of women .More than half its population is made up women. There have been great strides made. We pay attention. More than that, we remain fixated on a future which promises much.
We unwaveringly devote ourselves to the cause and earn our place. We are a species blessed with a lot.
As we do that, we do not alienate our counterparts. In the end, we will not only attain our goals, but we will achieve synchronicity between male and female. Then, we will be able to look back with greater satisfaction at the strides made.
In God I Trust!
Twitter handle: @VictoriaRuzvid2; Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; WhatsApp number: 0772 129 972.
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