The status of women in Zimbabwe

I went back to Zimbabwe recently, where a small group of people still living the colonial lifestyle still prevail. In Zimbabwe's black and white cultures, women are still referred to as "ladies", for the most part, and are expected to have concomitant characteristics, such as being too delicate to do a number of things and needing male protection. This system of gender does not work against individual women, although it generally works to keep them as a group in their place. For instance taxi drivers will often pick up women first, rather than a male client, especially if she is calling at night, because they believe that women need to be protected more than men do. On the other hand, "ladies" are supposed to do their part by dressing real, real nice, especially on Sundays, or for a trip to the shopping centre. They are also supposed to uphold the belief that women and men are essentially different kinds of beings.

Another thing is that Zimbabwean men generally have no idea about female biology -- and neither do many Zimbabwean women. I'm suspecting that the pill is now widely prescribed there, so many of the women deal with fairly bad menstrual cramping. This is explained, in polite company, as "having a headache". Men believe that women suddenly become shy, are unable to eat their food with much gusto, and so on, because that is part of women's psychological nature. They do not make a link to the actual biological cause of this behaviour. Furthermore, a lot of women also seem to be confused about this matter, believing that prolonged bleeding (for a month or more) can be caused by "witches" (those who are jealous of you and wish you harm) or by the womb becoming tipped over so that it can "no longer hold any blood."

I was teaching women's self defence there, at a rural primary school, and was asked also to address the issue of female hygiene -- although this certainly was not my area. The Shona man I was with said he didn't know anything about that topic, and he seemed, from what I could see, to be speaking quite literally.