Virtue, Motherhood and Femininity: Women’s Political Legitimacy in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Why are so few women being elected to positions of leadership in Zimbabwe? This article provides insights into the barriers that women face getting elected. In documenting the experiences of 11 female candidates who ran in the July 2018 elections in Harare, the article argues that intersectional axes of discrimination based on gender, age, class, party identification and marital status became significant barriers for these women in getting elected. The article draws on ethnographic material consisting of in-depth interviews, focus groups, participant observation and media analysis. The article concludes that the growing feminist scholarship on intersectionality which originated in the United States needs to go beyond the factors of race, class and gender, to include age, marital status and party identification particularly when considering the experiences of women of colour in the global South as reflected in the case of Zimbabwe.