Examining Zimbabwe’s Domestic Violence Issue through a socioecological lense
Last week I shared with you the situation of domestic violence in Nigeria, and how it is one of the countries in Africa with the worst case of Domestic Violence. This week I looked at Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe caught my eye in particular not necessarily because of high rates of domestic violence as Nigeria, but
primarily because it is a country whereby its culture of domestic violence is rooted in an array of issues, particularly economic and political issues. In Zimbabwe, domestic violence and rape have deeply-rooted structural explanations linked to the long history of colonialism and white minority rule, political transition, economic crisis and adjustment, changes in expected gender roles for women and men, and the political crisis that emerged in the last few years.
I wanted to focus in specific on the economic and political issues causing domestic violence in Zimbabwe, because often when we discuss domestic violence issues, we leave out the role that the state of the economy and the government can have on the situation of women and violence in both the private spheres and the public spheres, and Zimbabwe is a country that shows that.
Looking into the economic and political issues in Zimbabwe that caused the spur of domestic violence in the country:
For majority of the 1980′s, Zimbabwe experienced significant economic growth and substantially expanded the size of the state. The state specifically expanded social services, particularly in education and health care and appeared committed to fostering policies that promoted gender equality. Women and men both participated in the liberation war and the new government proclaimed that it intended to recognize this fact it its new policies. One of the state’s earliest efforts to advance the position of women was the creation of the Ministry of Community and Cooperative Development and Women’s Affairs in 1981. [1] This ministry was responsible for working to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and ensure their meaningful participation in all spheres of national development. The state also improved the legal status of women through the passage of the Legal Age of Majority Act, which changed women’s position from that of legal minors to full citizens. [1] As a result of these and other state actions, more women and girls enrolled in schools, occupied positions in the formal labor market, engaged in contracts, owned property, and attained credit in their own names. Further, women increased their participation in civil society through creating and sustaining local associations or NGOs to address their needs. The state’s actions, combined with women’s efforts, did foster greater legal equality and autonomy for some women in the first independence decade. [1] [This was very successful that by the late 1990s, black women held approximately 10-12% of all positions in parliament as well as positions in the cabinet, such as the Ministers of Cooperative and Community Development and Natural Resources and Tourism and some city council posts in the early post-independence period.]
However, going back to the 1980s, by the end of the 1980s, the Zimbabwean economy experienced a decline in its economy as a result of lower prices for its primary products, balance of payment programs, drought, and continued regional destabilization by South Africa. By 1988-89, economic growth had already decreased markedly to 5% from a high of 11% at the beginning of the decade, and unemployment had risen to 50% of the potential labor force. The government set up a program called the Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP) in 1990 in order to try and strengthen the economy of the nation under Mugabe’ s (the president at the time) reign.
ESAP was a flop! Because it led to the increased economic crisis for the nation and hardships for the people of Zimbabwe. Under ESAP, the state retrenched over 40,000 workers, who were mostly men, from the civil service. In an effort to increase the profitability of their enterprises, medium and large-scale firms also engaged in major layoffs. [1] Due to the layoffs men’s contributions to the family in this period of economic crisis declined and in many cases disappeared altogether.
In order to gain some form of wealth, a phenomena known as economic violence began to occur against women. Economic violence is whereby women experienced property grabbing by male relatives of a deceased man, forced dependency from their male partners or neglect of their material needs by their husbands. In addition to economic violence, men abused women to take out their frustrations leading to high rates of domestic violence in the country. This phenomena of economic violence was a new terminology for me and one that I found very interesting.
To summarize, the new higher status positions that some women were occupying in the state threatened male hegemony. Furthermore, that many of their wives, daughters and sisters were able to obtain positions in the informal economy and formal economy, were massive blows to male positions in the family and community. At the same time, many men were losing their positions in the formal economy with the retrenchment of tens of thousands of workers under structural adjustment. Poor and low-income black men could not fulfill their responsibilities as breadwinners. As the economic and political crises became more entrenched, they saw little chance of regaining their positions. In general, then, black men, most especially those in the poor, low-income and lower-middle income strata saw the privilege that they enjoyed simply based on their gender significantly eroded with the advancement of women at both ends of the socio-economic hierarchy. Many men took out their anger and frustrations on women, and this led to the increase of domestic violence in the nation.
REFERENCES:
1) Crisis in the State and the Family: Violence against women in Zimbabwe – http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v7/v7i2a8.htm
2) Surviving Structural Violence in Zimbabwe – http://apad.revues.org/3023
3) Zimbabwe: How domestic is domestic violence – http://allafrica.com/stories/201112160459.html
4) Zimbabwe Domestic Violence: Think about Children – http://allafrica.com/stories/201001290041.html
4 Comments
Wow. I found your post super compelling because I had no idea about the economic violence which you explained. I knew that domestic violence happened a lot more in poorer/low income situations because of the tensions and the stress caused by economic problems within families. For instance, I knew about the fact that domestic violence tends to rise around Christmas in the U.S. because of the financial stress and burden the season often places on families. However, I was fascinated to learn about the economic violence related to property grabbing in Zimbabwe which would, in some ways, allow men to retain their dominant positions over women who are rising in society. It is unsurprising to me that this happens, however, especially if there’s a strong cultural tradition of men being the breadwinners and having a higher position in society. Thanks for such an interesting post.
The situation of the economic violence that you describe in your blog is especially troubling, because it also seems like as the economy weakens and this violence rises, the government and other local organizations lack the money to address the violence. In this sense, it seems like a kind of vicious cycle. Your comments also make me wonder how or if the approach that a government/NGO/community takes towards domestic violence prevention changes if this violence is due in large part to economic factors? Is it more important to address the root economic factors first or the violence more directly?
I actually want to do research on the effects of institutionalizing women’s issues in a government structure. Thank you for bringing Zimbabwe to my attention. It is the perfect case study of the unintended consequences 2o or 30 years down the road if cultural attitudes are not changed with laws.
So I wrote about Zimbabwe’s structural adjustment program last week from the perspective of the health sector last week, when they had to cut women’s health services. This story about economic violence make a lot of sense, but if it wasn’t for terrible economic policy in the first place these governments wouldn’t have to go through the harsh austerity that they did. Also, I don’t think it was women in high positions in itself that threatened male hegemony, but rather that factor in the presence of economic crisis. I think the causal arguments you made at the end of your post are a bit of a reach.