WOMEN IN POLITICS

 Women in the political sector need to be recognised . The growing stereotypes on women must be broken. The political sector is not masculine,women can also do things that men can do. Therefore, women  need recognition and also must occupy higher ministries like the Ministry of Finance, Transport, Media and even the Ministry of Mines.First of all,women must be equally represented in the cabinet. President Robert Mugabe defended his 2014 cabinet which has only three women, he said "give us the women, there are just not enough women". Well, the Presidents statement is debatable because a lot of women are there in the in different industries including the political sector but they are not recognised and are not given prominence especially in the media. The three women in the cabinet are Oppah Muchinguri occupying Women's Affairs, Olivia Muchena occupying the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and Sithembiso Nyoni occupying Small and Medium Enterprises ministry. This cabinet appointment on its own is killing gender equality.Therefore,women must be equally represented in the parliament, in the cabinet and also in all the ministries. Stereotypes about women must be broken, no one said women belong in the domestic private sphere.The Zimbabwean Vice president Joyce Mujuru is constantly referred to as Amai Mujuru", as such, how often have we heard the President himself being referred to as "Baba Mugabe". More often than not, the President is given the title of "The Head of State and Government, the Commander -in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces,The Honorable President of the Republic of Zimbabwe". Why is this kind of title not given to the Vice President?Is it because she is a woman??. Women must be represented fully and equally and stereotypes must be broken so that they can have confidence in themselves and strive to occupy higher ministerial positions.

 There are women who are directly and indirectly involved in politics and we hear nothing about them. All we see are front page scandals on their private lives and not what they do as politicians. Women must be fully recognised and fairly covered. For example,Thokozani Khuphe the Deputy  Prime Minister was constantly covered in negative light and alleged to be pregnant and also covered on her fight against cancer and reported about being a single mother. Grace Mugabe was covered when she was suspected to be having an affair with the Governor of the Reserve Bank Gideon Gono, and also when her son from her previous marriage was involved in a fight at Club 40/40. Why negative publicity on women?? How many times have we heard about Jonathan Moyo's private life??But why is more attention given to women and their private lives???In a News Day article on May 11,2013,President Mugabe blasted his party officials on their failed marriages, Ignatius Chombo, Simon Khaya Moyo, Sylvester Mguni and Francis Nhema. These politicians divorcees were mentioned once and they were not given prominence but whenever a female politician  is involved the story makes headlines and runs for days. Women are capable of being great ministers and great leaders. These are the women who need support from fellow women and Zimbabwean citizens.