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Women
in Parliament Support Unit (WiP-SU) - Baseline Survey
July 2001
Women’s
participation in politics and decision-making has become one of
the central advocacy issues of activists the world over. There are
basically three reasons why women and men should participate, on
an equal basis, in politics and decision-making. Humanity consists
of females and males and, in the context of Zimbabwe, 52% of the
population is made up of females while the other 48% is made up
of males. Gender justice requires that, in all sites of power and
decision-making, there be an equal representation of women and men.
The requirement for women and men to take part in making decisions
that affect their lives is not negotiable but mandatory.
The second reason
why there should be an equal representation of women and men in
decision-making is that no one sex should be responsible for making
decisions for the other. Women need to represent themselves in making
decisions that affect them. Men cannot and should not be expected
to represent women’s interests.
Lastly, the
greatest resource that any country has are its people. For as long
as there is no equitable representation of women in politics and
decision-making and other sites of power, then Zimbabwe is under-utilising
the potential of its human resources and the country is not benefiting
from the knowledge and perspectives that women bring.
A government by men for
men is not a government for all the people. Women must participate both as leaders
and as voters to ensure that decisions made at every level meet their practical
and strategic needs globally, regionally and nationally.
Read the full survey
- Download
the Rich Text File (RTF) version (385KB)
- Download
the Acrobat PDF version
(262KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer,
download it from the Adobe website by clicking
here.
Visit the WiP-SU fact sheet
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