Briefing Paper; By RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY UNIT
Introduction
This briefing paper is based on work supported by the Henrich Boll Stiftung (HBS) in
2023/2024, under its component of the program goal of Advancing and Defending Civic
Freedoms and Economic Justice in a project titled “Disruption: Repositioning the women and
youth campaigns” towards increased representation.
Using action research, the project explored structural as well as institutional challenges that are
putting spanners in attempts to achieve equal representation of women in politics and decision making despite vast amounts of resources invested over the last decade. The work was informed by the continued decline of directly elected female representatives in the National Assembly as well as at the local government level in Zimbabwe. It therefore sought to re strategize how female and youth political leaders can address the current challenges of exclusion and increase representation within the political sphere.
The 2023 elections in Zimbabwe highlighted the continued decline of female representation.
Only 70 women contested for the National Assembly out of a total of 637 candidates, and only 22 women were directly elected as Members of Parliament compared to 188 men. This marks a decline from the 25 women elected in 2018. Women’s direct representation in the National Assembly dropped to 11%, down from 14% in 2018 and 16% in 2013.1 Although the total percentage of women in Parliament stands at 34%, this number is inflated due to reserved seats rather than genuine electoral victories. A comparison from across the SADC region from 2013 to 2023 RAU (2024) notes that the percentage of women in the lower chamber of parliament increased modestly, from 23.8% to 26.02%. While this shows a positive trend, it reflects the slow progress in increasing women’s political representation2. Working with female politicians in the HBS-supported project, they shared the challenges they confront frequently which is impacting on women participation and ultimately representation.
These included, but were not limited to:
1. Access to finance, which was controlled by their male counterparts –
2. Violence and intimidation of women in politics
3. Political party structures relegated women’s participation to the Women’s League or
women’s Assemblies.
4. Lack of political will to genuinely address gender representation
5. Pull Her Down Syndrome within political parties and communities.
1RAU & Women’s Trust (2013), Gender Audit of the 2013 Voters’ Roll, July 2013. Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit.
2RAU (2024) Implementing the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development: Regional Progress since 2008
1 As the title of the project suggests, disruptive and transformative approaches are required if
gender equality is achieved. “Disruptive” relates to challenging the way society thinks about
the position of women in society while “transformative” approaches relate to addressing the
very structural and institutional barriers that impede women from ascending.
The Operating Context
There are a number of critical contextual factors that inform why women participate or shun politics. These have to do a lot with the political culture which limits or offers opportunities for female candidates with the right attributes. They have to assess the political risk of their decision and more often than not, Zimbabwe’s political environment is too risky for the “right” candidates to commit to politics.3 It is a violence-infested terrain where politics is a zero sum game for most, where they see an election as a means to better livelihood. That also explains why the terrain is even tougher for younger women to get into politics as the older generation are not keen to groom younger leaders and pass on the baton.
Zimbabwe’s women’s movement in 2013 celebrated the adoption of a new constitution that was intent on addressing equality and representation for both men and women. The 2013 Constitution introduced measures to enhance women’s representation in Parliament. Section124(1) (b) established a quota system, adding 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly six from each of the ten provinces elected through proportional representation based on party lists. This provision was initially set for two parliamentary terms, covering the 2013 and 2018 elections.
In 2021, the Constitution was amended to extend this quota system for an additional two terms, thereby including the 2023 and 2028 elections. The amendment also introduced a youth quota, allocating ten seats for individuals under 36, with half reserved for young women. The
discussions within the women’s movement were that the 60 seats would allow them to attract women with skills drawn from various backgrounds including the corporate sector to enter into politics and contribute to development through their craft literacy as well as craft competency. This was never the case and the “right” women were never appointed. Rather the facility became space for older women to ‘retire’ and collect a pension as well as rewarding loyal female candidates. Some female candidates even went further to suggest that those that were placed on party PR list were girlfriends of senior male politicians5. In short, the women owed their positions to the party and largely failed on the mandate to advance women’s issues. Zetterberg (Zetterburg 2008) identified 3 factors that impede women from PR from performing their tasks6:
1. Tokenism – Party elites select women they can control.
2. Marginalization – Women in PR seats are excluded from leadership roles.
3. Invisibility – Women in PR seats lack real decision-making power.
3RAU (2010), Women, Politics and the Zimbabwe Crisis, Report produced by Idasa (An African Democracy
Institute), the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), and the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ). May 2010. Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit.
4RAU (2018), Political participation by young women in the 2018 elections: Pre-election report. September
2018. Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit; RAU (2018), Political participation by young women in the 2018
elections: Post-election report. December 2018, Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit.
5Female participants from the capacity building trainings.
6Zetterberg, P. (2008). The Downside of Gender Quotas? Institutional Constraints on Women in Mexican State
Legislatures. Parliamentary Affairs, 61(3), 442–460.doi:10.1093/pa/gsn016 2
The greater majority of women aspiring to be politicians have to contend with psychological
and emotional barriers that impede them from participating in formal politics.7 However, we
need to explore the fact that the slow regression of women representation is institutionalized.
The participants under the project, Disruption: Repositioning the women and youth
campaigns, pointed to a combination of structural obstacles which include deeply embedded
patriarchal socio-cultural values, undemocratic institutions and policy frameworks, and low
levels of civic and gender awareness. They also pointed out the constricted formal political
space, highlighting how most women’s political engagement is operated outside the state, with
very little connection or support from the patriarchal state as well as their political parties. They
acknowledged the role of the women’s movement in Zimbabwe in creating political space for
female participation in politics and in supporting engendered social change, but these efforts
continue to be hindered as the political space remains patriarchal.
There are also ‘ideological’ undertones which inform women’s participation. Voting behavior
is hardly ever about issues but rather voting for political parties. This probably explains why it
is difficult for independent candidates to win elections. Voters are influenced by their affiliation
to a political party as well as its ideological underpinning and it doesn’t matter whether the
candidate is male or female. Who decides to elect a female party representative is not
necessarily the voter as it commonly assumed, but a calculated decision by the political party
elites’ support in view of their perception of voters’ preferences (Gallagher & Marsh 1988;
Huddy & Terkildsen 1993; Thompson & Steckenrider 1997; Rule & Zimmerman 1994).
The political nature of Quotas: Opportunity Versus Equality
The adoption of quotas and mechanisms to increase women representation indicates a growing trend recognizing the need to include more women in political decision-making (Krook 2006). Gender quotas are special measures introduced in order to address structural discrimination against women and are an effective instrument for achieving gender balance in political institutions, which is considered essential for democratic development8. While they have proven to be effective in some contexts, the debate surrounding quotas often centers on the tension between opportunity and equality. Quotas can be seen as both an opportunity for
women and a challenge to the principle of equality, reflecting the complex political nature of
these policies. According to Caccavale (Caccavale 2021), equality of outcome looks to ensure
people who are disadvantaged are making gains, while equality of opportunity looks to ensure
that everyone has the same opportunities to make those gains. Therefore, the analysis of gender quotas should be context specific because different political contexts as well as political
objectives produce different results.
On one hand, quotas present a valuable opportunity for women who have historically been
excluded from political power due to systemic barriers such as discrimination, violence, and
cultural norms. The project participants identified structural obstacles that make it difficult for
them to compete on equal terms with men. Quotas, therefore, serve as an affirmative action
measure, ensuring that women have the opportunity to enter political spaces that would otherwise be closed to them.
7RAU (2020), Does having more Women in Parliament have any Effect on Women’s Participation? April 2020.
Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit.8Drude Dahlerup (2007) ELECTORAL GENDER QUOTAS: BETWEEN
EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND EQUALITY OF RESULT, Representation, 43:2, 73-92, DOI: 10.1080/00344890701363227 3
Since quotas have been adopted globally, the result has been an impressive rise in the share of
women in national parliaments with the global average nearly doubling from 11.3% in 1995 to
22.1% by 20159. However, the reality is that, in the majority of cases, elections have produced
fewer women elected than anticipated. One has to interrogate the spirit behind the quotas and agree with Dahlerup’s conclusion that quota systems that do not match the electoral systems in place are merely politicking and tokenistic(Dahlerup 2006(a)). Critics argue that quotas can be a form of tokenism, where women are selected to fill specific quotas without necessarily having the same level of support or merit as their male counterparts. The political nature of quotas often means that women are seen as filling a predetermined role, sometimes leading to the perception that their inclusion is more about fulfilling a numerical target rather than reflecting genuine equal opportunities for political participation. In such cases, women may not have the same political power or influence, as their roles might be relegated to symbolic or secondary positions, especially if political parties treat the quota as a mere formality.
The political nature of quotas intersects with the dynamics of power within political parties. In
systems where women are placed on candidate lists due to a quota, their political advancement may be constrained by party leadership, which often controls access to winnable positions. Even with quotas in place, the political party structure and internal power dynamics can undermine the intention of equal representation, limiting the effectiveness of quotas in
promoting genuine equality. The success of quotas in achieving true equality is contingent upon the political context in which they are implemented. Are Electoral Reforms Central to Addressing Representation? Electoral reforms are often seen as a critical strategy for addressing issues of political representation, particularly in countries where gender inequality in decision-making bodies persists. Electoral systems, however, do not arise from a vacuum but from political debate and struggle. They mirror the politics of the time of their creation and are altered when politics
change to the point where the existing electoral system becomes too restrictive (Taagepera and Shugart 1989). Zimbabwe’s women’s movement has long advocated for reforms that would increase women’s political representation. One significant achievement was the introduction of gender quotas in the Constitution in 2013, which ensured that at least 30% of the seats in the National Assembly were reserved for women. Whilst desirable, this clashes with the most assertive section in the Bill of Rights, Section 15, that requires equality (50/50) in all aspects of social and political life. Nonetheless, electoral reforms remain one of the trump cards for the Zimbabwe’s Women’s movement in their efforts to promote gender parity in political spaces because electoral arrangements carry the day ultimately10. The push towards Proportional Representation (PR) to enhance female representation is informed by the beliefs that PR systems are more inclusive because they allocate seats based on the percentage of votes a party receives.11 However, the political context in Zimbabwe presents unique challenges. Zimbabwe’s political environment is heavily influenced by entrenched power structures, particularly the dominance of the ruling party, ZANU-PF. Political party loyalty and patronage often determine who gets nominated for electoral positions, and women often face barriers such as a lack of financial resources, political 9http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/WIP20Y-en.pdf. 10 Wilma Rule (2012) Women’s Underrepresentation and Electoral Systems, Political Science and Politics, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), pp. 689-692
11 RAU (2020), Quotas or Proportional Representation? A Selective Review of the Evidence. January 2020.
Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit. 4
violence, and intimidation. These issues are not easily addressed through electoral reforms
alone but must be coupled with broader societal and institutional changes to achieve genuine
equality. The Zimbabwe’s women’s movement, through their various clusters have endorsed the push for Proportional Representation at they prepare for the next electoral cycle.12 However, there are key questions that need to be considered in pushing for these electoral reforms. Mismanaging this push can result in perpetuation of the same which may overtime lead to fatigue as the case may now appear to be. Electoral reforms are normally pushed by “weaker parties” trying to gain some political advantage or alter the status quo. However, if the proposed reforms serve also to strengthen the position of the governing party, then these are likely to be met with a positive response. So ultimately proposed electoral reforms, like any other political reforms, are about current attitudes, perceptions, and the political appetite displayed by the ruling political party at a given moment in time. Never mind the political rhetoric pronounced by junior and even senior government officials including Ministers as they attend spaces created by civil society organisations. The critical question would be whether proposed electoral reforms strengthen the ruling party’s position over the state architecture and access to resources to further consolidate its hold on power against a perceived “regime change” threats driven by from the Western funded NGOs?
That is the question, and the response has nothing to do with addressing equality. It has everything to do with both intra-party succession politics and power-balancing acts as well as
the external political environment. In 2004 for example, Joyce Mujuru was appointed Deputy
President of Zimbabwe, ascending into the Presidium as the first female to hold such high
ranking position. Her elevation was marked as victory for women lobbying for inclusion and
representation in the Presidium. However, her ascendency had nothing to do with addressing
gender equality but was accidental as it dealt with internal succession battles.13 The purpose of the quotas in Zimbabwe was to spur the numerical representation of women in the National Assembly and ensure that women issues are flagged out and reflected in policy. It was also a platform to create a pool of women with experience to face off in the elections as party candidates. The perceptions from this scenario are somewhat disappointing with little evidence suggesting greater attention to women’s issues in the policy-making process as well
as grooming the next generation female leaders. In fact, the first generation Quota system
beneficiaries earned themselves ridiculing names such as “BACCOSSI. Zetterberg notes that
women who enter legislative bodies through gender quotas—are more likely to suffer from
institutional constraints14 as they have to contend with the reality that they are accountable to
some gatekeepers (Zetterberg 2008). The verdict from Zimbabwe’s experience, perhaps harsh,
is that quotas have not eliminated all barriers to the articulation of women’s concerns but have created a whole new set of problems including entitlement of the older generation female leaders.
12 This position has been taken through the Thematic Working Group on Politics and Decision Making and various platforms supported by UNWomen and the Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) 13 Matyszak, D (2012), Apres moi le Deluge: Succession and the ZANU PF Party Constitution. July 2012. Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit.
14 Zetterberg, P. (2008). The Downside of Gender Quotas? Institutional Constraints on Women in Mexican State Legislatures. Parliamentary Affairs, 61(3), 442–460.doi:10.1093/pa/gsn0165
Towards a New Framework of Electoral Reform The desire to push for electoral changes are not only caused by the failures of the current arrangements, but also the experiences of citizens around democracies from across the globe which are informed by global mass media, better education, and a great deal of policy learning (Rose 1993). These important political developments coupled with the international agenda that puts women at the centre of development is reflected in the government of Zimbabwe thinking of as pronounced in the National Development Strategy (1), “leaving no-one and no place behind”. This is also consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals at the global level, creating considerable expectation that there is consensus that much needs to be done at the political level to achieve gender equality and representation beyond the rhetoric.
However, implementing PR in Zimbabwe is fraught with challenges due to the country’s deeply entrenched political dynamics. Zimbabwe’s political landscape has been historically dominated
by the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), which has maintained
a strong grip on power for decades. This dominance poses a significant challenge to the
introduction of PR, as it would require a level of political will and reform that may not align
with the ruling party’s interests. Power is never easily relinquished, and ZANU-PF has shown
reluctance to adopt systems that may diminish its control or empower opposition parties. PR
has the undesirable effect that rigging of elections – a continuous accusation of ZANU-PF
during elections – is more difficult than under First-Past-The-Post (PFTP) systems, the current
electoral system in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the adoption of PR will almost certainly require
the elimination of the current quota system and replace it with the constitutionally required
50/50 rule under Section 15 of the constitution.
Moreover, Zimbabwe’s political environment is marked by a lack of trust in the electoral
process, with allegations of electoral fraud and manipulation being common. While the
women’s movement may have consensus that PR could address the question of women
representation, the position may be a hard sell to both the ruling party and the opposition parties who might perceive the system as a threat to their established power.
Conclusion
Pushing for PR as the panacea to address representation of women must be treated with caution. It must be centered on understanding the political tide within the ruling ZANU PF itself
especially around the succession debate as well as the opposition. These political complexities
need to be treated with care. The inclusion of women in political decision-making has
historically been hindered by structural, cultural, and institutional barriers. These barriers—
ranging from financial constraints and political violence to the deeply ingrained patriarchal
structures—remain significant obstacles to achieving genuine equality in representation.
PR, in theory, could be a transformative tool to enhance female participation by ensuring that
political representation better reflects the gender demographics of the electorate. However, as
this paper illustrates, the effectiveness of PR depends not only on its design but also on the
political will of key stakeholders, particularly the ruling party, whose entrenched power
dynamics may resist reforms that could shift the status quo. Thus, the push for PR must be part of a broader reform agenda that addresses not only the electoral system but also the social, political, and economic barriers that restrict women’s full participation in politics.
6
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RAU (2018), Political participation by young women in the 2018 elections: Pre-election report. September
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RAU (2020), Does having more Women in Parliament have any Effect on Women’s Participation? April 2020. Harare: Research & Advocacy Unit.
RAU (2024) Implementing the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development: Regional Progress since 2008
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Zetterberg, P. (2008). The Downside of Gender Quotas? Institutional Constraints on Women in Mexican State Legislatures. Parliamentary Affairs, 61(3), 442–460.doi:10.1093/pa/gsn016