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Women-s rights in the USA - Lessons for Zimbabwe
Slyvia Chirawu
September 14, 2006

This paper was presented at the American Embassy Public Affairs Section in Harare.

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Introduction
In 2004 I applied for a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship to study law and human rights in the USA. I was awarded the fellowship in 2005 for the 2005/2006 period.

The HH fellowship is a Fulbright funded activity that is targeted at mid career professionals who are committed to public service. It involves ten and a half months of academic coursework and professional development in the USA. As part of this fellowship I went for studies at the American University Washington College of Law.

Today I am going to talk about women's rights in the USA and what lessons Zimbabwe can learn. From the onset let me make it clear that its not entirely a bed of roses for women in the USA. For instance, women of color face double jeopardy. They are discriminated against on the basis of sex and color. Women had to fight to get the right to vote. Women are underrepresented in the political field. Although there is an Equal pay act, women still earn significantly less than men. Pharmacists can refuse to dispense emergency contraception even with a legal prescription on the basis of conscience . Approval for over the counter morning after pill was only granted by the FDA on the 24th of August 2006 but only for women over 18 years with proof of I.D.and the Supreme Court has ruled that paid maternity leave is not guaranteed, so at the AU for instance, maternity leave is six weeks paid and if a woman wants to take another six weeks, it will be unpaid. Having said that, I believe that Zimbabwe has something to learn from the women's rights discourse in the USA. My talk will be based on my observations and experiences. I am going to discuss five main themes. These are broadly:

• The education system and women's right in the curricular
• Domestic violence Trafficking in persons
• Domestication of international instruments with emphasis on CEDAW
• Strategies by women's organizations

Women’s rights in the education system: My experinces at the Washington College of Law
WCL has a proud history of women’s rights. It was founded by two women Emma Gillett and Ellen Spencer Mussey in 1896. WCL was founded for the express reason of offering legal education to women. As a result WCL has a long standing tradition for the respect of the contributions of women to the legal education system.

The course content for both the law degree and the LLM is very strong in women’s studies. Some of the courses offered are sex based discrimination, women’s legal history, feminist jurisprudence, work and parenting, critical race theory, the human body as a legal metaphor, feminism in theory and practice, gender and the law, gender and cultural differences, Gender perspectives across the world, International trafficking in persons, domestic violence and international human rights. In addition, students can obtain a specialization in gender and the law. From my experience having taught at the University of Zimbabwe for three years, there are no course at undergraduate level on women’s rights except for women’s law. As a result, unless one goes further to do the Master’s in Women’s law, students leave the law school without an idea of important concepts such as gender. I am aware though that the Women’s University and ZOU are offering courses in gender.

WCL has ten law clinics two of which are women and the law clinic and domestic violence clinic. Law students are given an opportunity to represent real clients at the DC superior courts and also the Maryland courts. Students are given an opportunity under the supervision of practitioners in residence to acquire practical knowledge on all aspects of lawyering. One of the challenges we face with DV in Zimbabwe is that not many lawyers are prepared to handle such issues. Legal aid and NGOs cannot handle the number of clients who require services. It would work wonders if law students are empowered to handle such cases which not only give them practical experience but also lessens pressure on legal aid services.

Washington DC gives students opportunities to integrate practical experience with theory. At WCL this is done through supervised externship programmes. Students can join NGOs as part of the externship programme to gain practical experience.

Lessons for Zimbabwe

• Include women’s rights in the curricular and offer a wide array of courses related to women’s issues.
• Empower students through legal aid programmes-clinical legal education
• NGOs should forge links with Universities so that they can take students on attachment. WLSA recently had a male journalist student from the Polytechnic. It was so refreshing to have him in the office and he also gained experience in women’s rights issues.

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