Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home African Women Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'Forward to the past': dilemmas of rural women's empowerment in Zimbabwe
Author:Mungwini, PascahISNI
Year:2007
Periodical:African Sociological Review (ISSN 1027-4332)
Volume:11
Issue:2
Pages:124-133
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Zimbabwe
Southern Africa
Subjects:rural women
empowerment
traditional rulers
government policy
gender
Women in development
women's rights
Rural women--Social conditions
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/24487628
Abstract:The current policy of the government of Zimbabwe to strengthen traditional leadership reflects a particularistic position that development in Africa requires a successful restoration of traditional African cultural institutions. This paper applies analytic and philosophical reasoning to the 'noble' attempt of the Zimbabwean government to engage in what may be described paradoxically as 'marching forward to the past'. It examines whether the government's policy to empower traditional leaders and their attendant institutions is not, at the same time, undermining much of what it has achieved since independence in the area of the emancipation and empowerment of rural women. It shows that by strengthening the patriarchal hold, the status that women had acquired over the years is now being eroded by the government. There is a clear resuscitation of male dominance and ultimate control in the rural areas that has a negative effect on women and their capacity to participate openly in the affairs of their community and to make decisions for themselves. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract]
Views
Cover