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Gender, Governance and the Welfare of Rural Women
Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) Southern Africa
Newsletter Vol 6 No.2, July 2002
by David Mazambani

Land distribution in Zimbabwe is the talk of the day but, how favourable are the land policies towards women? David Mazambani gives insight into some of the problems faced by women in Ruwangwe, Ward 4 of Nyanga District in Zimbabwe.

By 5.30 am, Mai Chido is up and running. She prepares breakfast for her husband and children and by 6.00am, she toils in the field. Her husband only joins her after attending to some other issues. At 12.00pm, she is exhausted and breaks to prepare lunch. By 2.00pm, she is back in the field. Such is a typical day for every woman in Ruwangwe.

Women's contribution is of strategic importance for household access to food and nutrition security. They achieve this through diverse and complicated livelihood strategies. Their participation in the ownership and management of land is not only desirable and essential but, it must be promoted in order to enhance their welfare.

However, that scenario does not prevail in Ruwangwe. Despite the fact that women labour to sustain households, gender inequity that is perpetuated by traditional customary practices hinder their progress. The national land policies and legislation also tend to further marginalise them. Gender inequity in land allocation is rife in the area. On average, male-headed house-holds own 2.0 hectares of arable land while female headed households have far much less. Single mothers, widows and divorcees share a paltry 0.7, 1.4 and 0.7 hectares respectively.

The situation with married women is rather complex and varies with the marriage arrangements. Those in polygamous marriages tend to have greater say over plots "allocated" to them by their husbands than those in monogamous marriages. Usually, men control the most fertile fields where cash crops are grown and allocate their wives smaller infertile land which they would not use anyway. These intra-household inequities should not be allowed to continue because they marginalise women who at the end of the day, work in their husbands' fields.

This precarious inequity is shocking especially in the wake that is happening 21 years after Zimbabwe attained national sovereignty. It is also surprising that the same women who are now being marginilised, fought alongside men during the armed struggle.

Failing to recognise women as farmers in their own right is tantamount to failure to recognise their existence. The 1951 Land Husbandry Act made the economic and social position of women precarious. The legislation perpetuated and compounded the subordination of women under the patriarchal system that was justified under the guise of "respecting" African customs. According to Gaidzwana, a gender activist, the accorded respect meant that African women were denied direct and independent right of access to land.

As if that was not enough, the post-independence state has perpetuated the colonial construct of customary tenure arrangements. Under the Communal Lands Act of 1982 and the Traditional Leaders' Act of 2000, women in the communal lands are still expected to depend on their spouses for access to land.

The Way Forward
Women, like men, need land as a home, as a means of livelihood, as a form of wealth and capital as well as for food production. Government should institute policies and programs that ensure more equitable access and control of land among communal land households irrespective of gender or marital status of the head of the household. Land tenure could actually evolve towards individualised ownership of land where men and women are treated in the same manner as is happening in the resettlement areas under the fast track land reform program.

Women's rights to land in the communal areas should be provided for in the constitution. Their access to credit facilities should be improved by having collateral requirements that do not emphasise title to land. They should be allowed to use other assets as guarantees.

Anti-poverty strategies should be developed to focus explicitly on removing burdens and constraints on women. Such interventions should focus on raising the economic productivity of women as individuals rather than on women as part of households. Their working conditions should accommodate the household roles of women as mothers and wives.

The lack of direct access to land by women in the communal lands is a national challenge that must be confronted now if Zimbabwe wants to liberate more than half of its population who are reeling under poverty

Dr David Mazambani is the Director of Edit Trust and can be contacted on 029-8-381

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