Zambian Women: You can be more than Just dancing Queens for political parties

Cadres at Kapingila House

By Margaret Mwewa

The election campaign period is always a very busy time for a lot of people in this country, especially women.

In every election, I see plenty of women at political party rallies singing, dancing and chanting slogans. Marketeers, mostly composed of women, who are mothers, daughters, and sisters are lured away from their productive daily activities in the markets or on the streets by alcohol and brown envelopes dished out by political parties.

But, I see very few of these women in positions of authority, after the elections, when the dust has settled, and the winners have occupied the Government. When it is time for campaigns, suddenly, all the women in our communities become important to political parties because they need to do the singing and the dancing, but when it is time to appoint people in positions of power, no one remembers any of those women anymore.

Why is it this way? Why are women in our country good enough to be used heavily in campaigning for their respective political parties, but not good enough to be given positions of authority in both political party structures and in Government?

The Numbers Before anyone labels me as a man-hating, evil feminist for asking these questions, let me lay out a few statistics which demonstrate the injustice.

According to the voter register from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), as of 30th November, 2014, there were 2,575,750 female voters and 2,590,338 male voters.

This shows that the number of men and women active participants in the electoral process is almost equal. If that is the case, why do we still have only a tiny number of women holding positions of authority in the Government? Article 12 of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, which was signed by SADC Heads of State in 2008, states that “Parties to the protocol shall endevour to have at least 50 per cent of decision-making positions in the public and private sectors to be held by women by 2015, including the use of affirmative action measures.”

This was certainly an ambitious target, and it is no wonder that most countries who signed this protocol have not come close to achieving it, seven years later. Currently, out of 158 Members of Parliament in Zambia, only 23 are female. Out of 25 Cabinet Members, only 7 are female.

There is a huge possibility that these depressing statistics could soon be a thing of the past, going by the newly amended Zambian Constitution. Part (1) (b) of Article 259, of the new Constitution requires a person making appointments for persons to serve in a public office to ensure that 50 per cent of each gender is represented from the total available positions, unless it is not practicable to do so. This development entails that we are likely to see more women in Government, after the 11th August, 2016, general elections because the new President will obviously have to adhere to this requirement whether he likes it or not.

Challenges Women Face In Politics

There is no denying the fact that there are a lot of factors that hinder women from being given leadership roles in political parties and in Government.

These include; high illiteracy levels, poverty, and cultural norms that discourage women from competing with men or aspiring to leadership positions.

In terms of education, many women who are heavily involved in politics at the grass root do not have the required academic and leadership qualifications to serve in certain positions. This limits their participation to the lowest level in politics.

However, even those women who are qualified are usually sidelined by their male counterparts for some reasons. Local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) advocating for women’s empowerment argue that even when women are adopted by political parties to stand as candidates, they usually do not win because they lack the financial resources to intensively campaign for themselves as compared to male candidates.

Therefore, political parties would rather adopt male candidates than adopt a woman and risk losing a seat in Parliament or local government.

The Way Forward  Despite these obvious challenges standing in the way of women getting to leadership roles, I do not think it is a great idea for us to be content with the status quo.

I would rather we get “In Formation,” as Beyonce would put it. We can all commit ourselves to do everything necessary to change the way women are used in the electoral process. Our mothers, sisters, daughters, and grandmothers in our homes and communities need to know that they can do more than just sing and dance for the political parties they belong to or support.

Of course, there is nothing wrong about singing and dancing, but many women at the grass root level in politics think that is all they can do.

They need to become aware that they can broaden their participation and actually perform leadership roles as well as the men in these political parties.

We, the men and women in this country, can help turn around this situation. For example, if you have a woman in your family or community who wants to stand as a candidate for local government or parliamentary elections in a political party, or as an independent candidate, and you think she is capable of being a leader, you can support her by donating your time, money and skills to help her get elected.

You can also lend your support in different ways to local organisations, which are running various programmes meant to equip women and girls with an education, as well as leadership skills and other resources that will help them compete with their male counterparts effectively for leadership roles.

Let us make it our mission to let every Zambian woman in our home, school, church, or workplace, know that she can be more than just a cadre or a dancing queen for a political party.

We can end the era of political parties taking advantage of the women in our communities to do their donkey work during election campaigns, and then tossing them aside when they are over.