Abstract
Freedom of any kind is very important to the full functioning of any human being in society. It allows people to make personal choices that they can be happy and proud about. But for the majority of women across the world, achieving such liberty has proved unrealistic due to a number of factors. For some, the political, economic, and social space of their everyday life is extremely stifled to accommodate the exercise of fundamental human freedoms. This paper investigated the diverse forms of barriers that hinder many baTonga rural women (Binga, Zimbabwe) from asserting their rights claims, importantly, the right to gender equality. The study is a descriptive research that was conducted through secondary data. Though substantial progress in tradition and socio-cultural practices has been achieved, the majority of the rural women are still trapped in intersecting and overlapping inequalities. While some of their sites of struggle are generic and common to all women globally, some are more specific due to their traditional and cultural beliefs. With a gross history of political and economic marginalisation in the region, access to quality education has rendered both sexes deficient of compatible skills and exposure to handle society’s contemporary challenges. Given the culturally facilitated gender imbalance in accessing formal education, rural women remain the most affected in so far as participation in politics, mainstream economy and other social platforms is concerned. Therefore, to address these and other forms of their exclusion, a holistic approach to their challenges is recommended and preferably, one that is gender responsive. A case in point would be a redress of the 1950s historical dislocation of the baTonga people to cater for the developmental needs of both the present and future generations of baTonga rural women. Thus, by building schools, clinics, and other essential public service facilities in rural areas the government should empower women to be able to respond to their needs. Keywords; BaTonga, women, gender equality, marginalisation, socio-cultural practices, exclusion, Binga, Zimbabwe. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/101-10 Publication date: September 30 th 2020
Highlights
Many women across the world generally lack support in many fundamental functions of human life as compared to men
It is against this background that this paper seeks to expose the long accepted socio-cultural traditions, political and economic marginalisation that enlarge the baTonga rural women’s sites of domination
Discussion of findings 5.1 Effects of the political and economic marginalisation on baTonga rural women Among the multiple challenges caused by marginalisation in rural Binga District, access to quality formal education for the majority of children remains a big problem.[76]
Summary
Many women across the world generally lack support in many fundamental functions of human life as compared to men. [4] Within the family space, this is more pronounced in the way social structures are organised whereas, in the public sphere institutional organisation and policies critically influence the manner in which gender issues are handled.[5] It is against this background that this paper seeks to expose the long accepted socio-cultural traditions, political and economic marginalisation that enlarge the baTonga rural women’s sites of domination. 5. Discussion of findings 5.1 Effects of the political and economic marginalisation on baTonga rural women Among the multiple challenges caused by marginalisation in rural Binga District, access to quality formal education for the majority of children remains a big problem.[76] Given the fact that education can serve as a window through which young people can dream and visualise the future, for many young girls, the lack of modern infrastructure and services that speaks to their needs in a changing world, renders such to be of little use to many of them. I present possible recommendations that can be adopted towards supporting baTonga rural women in achieving this goal
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
