A salute to the women

The world celebrated the International Women’s Day on Tuesday under the theme “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” amid calls for climate action for women, by women.

According to the UN Women, women and  girls experience the greatest impacts of the climate crisis as it amplifies existing gender inequalities and puts women’s lives and livelihoods at risk.

Across the world, women depend more on, yet have less access to, natural resources, and often bear a disproportionate responsibility for securing food, water, and fuel, it said.

“As women and girls bear the burden of climate impacts, they are also essential to leading and driving change in climate adaption, mitigation and solutions.  Without the inclusion of half of the world’s population, it is unlikely that solutions for a sustainable planet and a gender equal world tomorrow will be realised,” UN Women said.

In partnership with our sister unit, ZiFM Stereo, Business Times this week co-hosted a breakfast meeting as part of International Women’s Day celebration.

The sold out event had executives from the corporate and NGO sectors and students panellists who spoke of capacitating women to reduce dependency on salary.

We take this day seriously which was born out of the struggle for better working conditions for women and the right to vote. The day was celebrated for the first time by the United Nations in 1975.

We believe a lot of ground has been covered to ensure equality between men and women in all spheres life.

We are alive to a number of conventions that close the gap between men and women such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women which came on board in 1991 and the Beijing Declaration on the Platform for Action (1995).

There is also the Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the Equal Remuneration Convention, the Convention on Prohibition of Discrimination in Occupations and the Convention on Economic, and Social and Cultural Rights.  In 2008, Zimbabwe ratified the protocol to the 2003 African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women.

The Bill of Rights in Chapter 4 of the new Constitution recognises that men and women have a right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres.

Despite these conventions and legislation discrimination in the workplace is still prevalent with a new breed of perpetrators — sex predators that prey on defenceless women.

Harrowing tales of harassment of students on attachment or bosses that force themselves on subordinates have dominated mainstream and social media.

Former Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries CEO Farai Zizhou had his household property auctioned after he failed to pay damages amounting to US$180,000 for sexually harassing a female subordinate over a decade ago.

In a statement after the landmark ruling, the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) said the judgment upholds the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, in particular the right to human dignity (section 51), the right to personal security and freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment (section 53).

It said sexual harassment was a global phenomenon and many women continue to suffer in silence. ZWLA noted the adverse impact of sexual harassment of women in the work place, in public and in professional settings thereby inhibiting the enjoyment of human rights.