Gender and higher education in post-colonial Zimbabwe: tentative reflections on policy issues

Abstract

Social configurations, development projects and even analyses in the academe have largely been androcentric due to the dominance of patriarchy as the mode of existence. Women’s interests and concerns over the years have been subsidiary to those of men. Many organisations now seek to reverse this by establishing an even keel for men and women. Governments are promoting gender equality and equity through the implementation of gender sensitive policies and programmes. This is being done by according women preferential treatment in jobs and promotions, quota systems in political party candidate lists, enrolment in schools and colleges, and by the elimination of gender restrictions in all spheres of life. In order to show regard for women’s rights, the engendering of policies, programmes and projects of governments, training institutions, NGOs bilateral and multilateral organisations and other interested partners in development and governance is imperative. This paper seeks to make a historical critique of the application of gender, as a concept and a framework of policy formulation in post-colonial Zimbabwe’s higher education sector by academics and administrators. The underlying argument of the paper is that the higher education sector is not “sufficiently” gender mainstreamed. This is so in spite of the fact that as early as 1992 the University of Zimbabwe adopted affirmative action policy