GREAT ZIMBABWE UNIVERSITY

NAMES/ SURNAMES. REG NUMBERS

CALTON GUCHU. M166053

RODWELL ZINGWENA. M166946

TAWANDA MOYANA. M166065

RONALD MACHARAGA. M167767

BERVERLY NHIKA

VALENTINE MAHACHI

BLESSING CHIMOMBO

LUCIOUS SAMHEMBERE

MELISA MANAMIKE.

MODULE. GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

PROGRAMME BA HONS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

COURSE CODE. HDVS

LEVEL. 2:1/2017

LECTURER. MRS MARIME

QUESTION. Critically assess factors that challenge women's economic participation.

Many challenges have been articulated to have limited women’s participation in economic activities
in most parts of the continent . These challenges include bad cultural practices such as genital
mutilation, lack of education access as compared to men, Unemployment of many women, gender
biased and discrimination of women by patriarchal societies, also lack of health facilities to copy
with the diseases terrorising women and inefficient skills in educating women’s prone to the lack of
economic activities, political, economic and social inequalities practiced in many parts of the world,
the issue of early marriage associated with women. Therefore, the above mentioned factors will
cause women to lack a participation in the economic sphere,. Also the issue of feminist movement
have also engendered the support of bad cultural practices such as lesbians and gayism which has
made women to be denied the right in all sphere of economic activities. However, despite challenges
faced by women, notable achievements and solutions in empowering women have been noted.
These include expansion education access for women, employment access, policy mechanism in
legal and institutional sectors for women, mostly by GAD , WJD and WAD. More shall be brought as
the essay unwinds.

To commence with, early marriage poses as a challenge to women in economic participation. Early
child bearing, particularly that occurring before the age of 18 is diminished to both mother and child,
not only because of the higher risk associated with adolescent pregnancies but also early child
bearing usually deprives young women from the opportunity of pursuing other activities, such as
schooling or employment. It is in this notion that sir Ronald(1997) postulate that early marriages in
most developing nations reduces the chances of women’s participation in economic activities. Most
women in the third world states are not masters of their destines because of male dominance who
CH therefore result in forced early marriages, thus reducing their involvement in economic
development. For example, in Zimbabwe the apostolic church of the Masowe in particular, supports
the issue of early marriages which result in child pregnancies and thus affecting economic activities
of these young girls. Hence, it can be noted that early marriages poses as a challenge faced by
women in economic participation.

More so, women face problems of access to other inputs, including credit, technology, extension
services, training and marketing. Banks demand collateral in the form of landed property. In
agriculture for instance most resources and technical assistance have been focused on men growing
export crops, with improved seeds and tools going to larger commercial farmers, almost invariably
men. Only 5% of the resources provided through extension services in Nigeria are available to
women although this is not enough for them to freely participate in economic activities. If women
had the same human capital endowments and used the same level as that of men, the level of
women’s production would increase. Mox(2000) arguess that some of the obstacles that women
confront have been worsened by the impact of structural adjustment programmes. Greater
emphasis is placed on export crops, which are usually grown by men, the domestic terms of trade ,
have therefore tended to shift against food production, where women predominate. Most of the
women farmers do not market enough of their own produce to benefit from higher producer prices
and the increased acreage devoted to export and other cash crops has increased labour demands on
women thus limiting their economic participation.

Moreover, the ongoing economic crises and the gulf between job creation and the growth in the
numbers of job seekers have the employment situation for women in their economic participation.
But some face greater vulnerabilities in the labour market because of their relative lack of education
and training, the tendency to channel women into certain occupations, and the continuous heavy
burdens of unpaid domestic work, child bearing and child care, which restrict the time and energy
available for income-earning activities. According to the UNDP(2008), women are two-thirds less
likely than men to get waged employment. Only 3 out 10 women in the labour force in many states
are played employees. In 2008, the Federal Office of Statistics reported that about 5 per cent of the
labour force worked in industries, administrative or managerial positions. Employees in both the
public and private sectors earn steady , albeit low, incomes. Despite the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) conventions, to which most states are a signatory, there are significant income
disparities, with women earning half or less of the incomes of men. Many women also do not benefit
in practice from formal laws and policies guaranteeing maternity protection or equal pay for equal
work. Diles (2014), observes that women’s formal sector participation rates dropped from 57% in
1970 to 53% in 1990, with a 2,5 million women losing their jobs between 1985-1990. Thus, the
informal sector in which women predominate is characterised by low production and disguised
unemployment which lessens their economic participation.

In addition, many governments including Zimbabwe have ratified conventions and international legal
instruments on women’s rights. Often , however, these have not been enacted into national law.
Becherel(2014) women are ignorant of the existence of laws that recognize their rights and can be
invoked for their protection in economic participation. Various customary laws , religious ideologies
and cultural stereotyping have been used to treat women as minors in the law and household, with
few women having equal access to political offices and positions. Socialisation and educational
processes reinforce this situation, women are raised to believe that they are inferior to men.
Traditional women leaders have not been given the same recognition as male chiefs who have been
co-opted into new positions of power in their societies. Women are under- represented in high
offices of state and positions of decision-making in government, the military, central banks, finance
and planning ministries. Therefore, the above limited notion of legal rights and political participation
given to women in most states for economic affairs are a challenge to women’s participation in
economic development.

To expound further, lack of access by most women to formal education and training is a key barrier
to women’s employment and advancement in economic participation. Since education for women
advances their economic empowerment, and also promotes development more generally. In
Nigeria, female illiteracy rates were over 50% in 2007, compared to 38% for men. Literacy classes for
women have limited impact but programmes linked to income generating activities have been most
successful. In some areas, parents still prefer to sent boys to school, seeing little need for education
for girls. Again, adolescent pregnancies, early marriages and girls' greater burden of household
labour are obstacles to their economic participation especially when they become women. Girls
mainly in the rural areas often do not go beyond primary education, and school curricular have not
been guided by this reality and their content is not geared towards helping girls acquire basic life
skills. Furthermore, the curriculums are full of gender biases and leads girls into stereotypical
feminine jobs in teaching, nursing and clerical work, thus few women in .most states are found in
scientific or technical education where they could develop better skills to secure better paying jobs.
Thence, lack of education and adequate training of women makes them less participators in
economic affairs.
However, despite challenges faced by women in economic participation, there also some solutions
that have been put in place for women’s improvement in economic development. For instance,
several women’s associations have been formed or revitalised, and the quality of their work has
improved significantly. Associations such as WID and GAD devoted in educating women for their
skills, that even women and gender studies programmes also have been set up in many universities,
both to teach and to engage in fundamental and applied research to improve the conditions of
women. Rather than the development discourse of the 1970s and 1980s issues affecting women
now are discussed most often within the framework of rights. Sub regional groups have also
emerged and have identified key areas for women’s emancipation in economic spheres and these
groups act as pressure groups , network with each other, form regional and global alliances and aim
to direct resources and attention to women. According to Diles(2015), Women’s World Banking and
AFWE address the lack of credit for women entrepreneurs by acting as collateral grantees and
providing matching funds to give poor women better credit access. Also Women’s World Bank
advocates the establishment of a continental bank for women. On the other side FAWE brings
together female ministers in charge of education, university Chancellors, permanent secretaries and
other influential women to work towards increasing women’s participation in economic activities
despite challenges faced by most women.

To add on, another solution put in place to counterfeit women’s challenges in economic
participation is equality of responsibility between men and women for gender equality to become
reality. Mainly, this issue was support by (GAD) Gender And Development, with the goal to make
women reach the same high positions as men in various fields, more focused education and
socialisation were advocated for better burden-sharing and a fairer division of labour between men
and women in all economic spheres. Bacheret(2014)more economic programmes overlook the
unpaid economy, where women predominate and they also assume that males and females respond
to do incentives in the same way, thereby ignoring gender and power how the production means is
owned, of which WID in conjunction with the World Bank and many national banks have attempted
to solve by creating a vacuum for women’s participation in economic activities. Thus, despite
challenges, women have been given the room to participate economically in most states, though to
a lesser extent.

Also, women’s economic challenges have been solved as regards to access to resources,
governments, local authorities, civil societies, NGOs and various organisations like WID and GAD
have demonstrated the commitment in removing legal impediments and socioeconomic obstacles
against women. Mostly in the rural areas where the majority of women live and are economically
active, the constraints on women’s access to land, credit, extension services, inputs and new
technologies have been erected and granted to most women for economic development. For
instance, sir Diles noted that Zimbabwe is one of the state that has taken a lead in improving
women’s access to economic participation through institutional reforms and legal terms. Hence, the
above efforts in empowering women economically, have led women to take part in leadership and
organisational offices, health and education institutions and to work under effective labour time in
most of their economic backgrounds. By that, despite challenges, women’s participation in economic
activities have been improved through diverse policy approach solutions.
To sum up, many challenges faced by women in economic participation have been noted by the
essay and these are, lack of employment and education, the issue of early marriages in .most
countries, the notion of patriarchal society and gender based inequalities in most parts of the
continents, lack of access to land through discrimination and women being the mainstay of rural
production this being marginalised. Thus the above challenges, work hand in hand in limiting the role
that women should have played in economic activities. However, despite challenges faced by
women in economic participation, solutions have been put forth in order to empower women
economically. These solutions include, education access, employment and political freedom to
mention only a few as more can be traced from the above detailed essay.
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