The gender equality women enjoy in Zimbabwe today is well-earned from the shared sacrifices that women made side by side with their men during the liberation struggle, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa said on Friday. She was officially opening the annual conference in Nyanga of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Zimbabwe and delivering the keynote speech. She said the country’s Constitution, which requires the state to take measures to ensure that both genders are equally represented in all government institutions and agencies, reflects and honours the nation’s recent history as the product of an armed national liberation struggle. “I took part in the struggle together with many other youthful women and young girls. We fought an asymmetrical war pitting the population against a well-armed minority. “To win we had to organise everyone into a people’s war. It spared no-one as we strove for victory. Women had to equally participate side by side with their men to offset the enemy’s technological edge. “This gender equality should never be construed as an act of charity. That is why the revolutionary constitution of 1980 was founded on the bedrock of gender parity. Since then, as women, we never looked back,” she said. “Feudal bandage of male patriarchy was done away with. No longer does a woman need her father, brother or husband to be given majority status. She now enjoys full rights without any hindrance of male sanction,” she said. She pointed out that soon after independence education opportunities were expanded. Rural folk built classrooms for free to be rewarded with teachers from central government. As classes were opened, the girl child was accorded equal access. “This explains the 96% literacy rating by Unesco in a nation where women outnumber men,” she said. “From my vantage point of a female combatant of the Chimurenga national liberation struggle, I am really impressed. The Zimbabwe women have more than delivered in the last four decades of freedom and independence. “The most outstanding is the farming domain for a nation that is still dependent on agriculture,” she said. She said the majority of the 200 000 leaf tobacco farmers registered with the Tobacco Marketing Board were women, who, unlike their male counterparts, were prone to spending their hard earned money on the welfare of their family. The end result was rising levels of rural prosperity. “When Air Zimbabwe pioneered Africa’s commercial flights to China our women seized commercial opportunities with Guangzhou,” she said, adding that many of them built their own new homes in growing towns and cities. Zimbabwean nurses were in demand in the United Kingdom, Dubai and elsewhere. Other countries in the region welcomed Zimbabwean teachers, with women prominent among them. “Zimbabwe women have boldly ventured into mining especially chrome and gold as our bountiful mineral resources are reclaimed for the majority. “All these are shining cases of women breaking through the gender glass ceiling of
