Women and Power in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Rhodesia's rebirth as Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe's rise to power dashed the hopes of women who had imagined independence as a road to gender equity and economic justice. Using history, literature, participant observation, and interviews, this book draws on thirty years of experience to survey Zimbabwean feminism from the colonial era to today. The book's analysis shows how actions as seemingly disparate as an ability to bake scones during the revolution and achieving power within a marriage in fact represent complex sources of female empowerment. The book also presents the ways women across Zimbabwean society—rural and urban, professional and domestic—accommodated or confronted post-independence setbacks. Finally, the book offers perspectives on the ways contemporary Zimbabwean women depart from the widespread view that feminism is a Western imposition having little to do with African women.