Zimbabwe: Gender Equality Without Political Will - Inside Zimbabwe's Electoral System That Still Sidelines Women

When Gibson Nyikadzino looks at Zimbabwe's 2023 election statistics, he does not see progress towards women empowerment; he sees a warning.

"In 2018, we had at least four women who contested as presidential candidates. In 2023, we only had one... "That alone tells you that something is restricting women from fully participating," he says

For Nyikadzino, the decline in the number of women contesting in the presidential elections is not incidental. It reflects what he describes as "systemic barriers embedded within Zimbabwe's political system." The barriers, he says, are structural, institutional, and deeply tied to those who hold power. As proved by recent research conducted by the Electoral Support Network of Southern Africa (ESN-SA), barriers to more meaningful participation by women in electoral processes emanate from an overall socio-economic, cultural and political environment that continues to be inhibitive. The restrictive nature of the environment is seen in factors that include electoral systems that discriminate against women, political party orientations that alienate women, poor access to economic resources by women, socio-cultural practices that perpetuate gender-based discrimination and institutional factors including insufficient constitutional and policy frameworks.

It is a result of a combination of these factors that the current distribution of Parliamentary seats in Zimbabwe points to a serious marginalization of women in political processes. Women currently hold 84 of Zimbabwe's 279 National Assembly seats, representing 30.1% of total seats in the country's lower chamber of Parliament. This is in comparison to men who occupy 195 seats, which translate into 69.9% of total seats in the National Assembly. In the Senate, women occupy 35 out of 79 seats, which is 44.3% of thetotal Senatorial seats. The other 44 or 55.7% of total senatorial seats are occupied by men. During the 2023 harmonized elections, only 22 women won directly contestedparliamentary seats compared to 188 men. This means women secured just 10.5% of directly elected parliamentary positions.

The small number of seats occupied by women owes to the predominance of the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system that, owing to past gender imbalances, is heavily tipped in favour of males. This is as contrasted to the Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system, which according to the ESN-SA research, is more conducive for a more effective participation of women in electoral processes.

The FPTP electoral system has traditionally advantaged men who have used it to crow