FEMINISM! The international movement and ideology has every woman chanting “equal rights for all” in every socio-economic and cultural space they participate in. Feminism has made tremendous contributions and shifts in how various facets of life are performed by people of varying genders. However, the question is; what is feminism, and how exactly does it affect women’s and girls’ education in Africa?
Feminism is a movement and an ideology that seeks to achieve equal social, political, and economic rights for all genders. It is a movement and ideology based on the idea that all genders should have similar and equal access to rights and opportunities to advance their sociocultural, economic and political lives. Feminism can be viewed as a political ideology that attempts to challenge, and correct gender relations as they exist in a patriarchal society.
According to a research university, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, “Feminism is seen in different kinds, but the most seen type of feminists are Liberals, radicals, socialists, cultural feminists, eco-feminists, Black Feminism and I-Feminists, an individual form of feminism usually associated with the saying a woman’s body, a woman’s right.”
African feminism can be argued to be more or less an adaptation of the mentioned types of feminism, with more inclination to Black Feminism. As African feminism seeks to specifically address the conditions and needs of continental (women that reside in that continent) African women. In Africa, feminism has been used as a tool for challenging the status quo of women’s standing, which is often held in inferior terms in society including their lack of access to education.
In many African countries, girls are not afforded the same educational opportunities and have many barriers as opposed to their male counterparts. Girls are often expected to take on more domestic roles such as caring for siblings or doing housework including cooking, and fetching water in places far from their homesteads, while boys are encouraged and invested to pursue educational opportunities. This is evidenced by countries such as Ethiopia, where two in every five girls are married before the age of eighteen and in the economically challenged rural communities of Zimbabwe where many parents are unable to send all their children to school. Consequently, this results in other social injustices like more girls being wed off at a young age whilst boys are left off to study and pursue further education.
This gender disparity in accessing education has been particularly pronounced in most African rural areas and communities where girls often lack access to basic services such as healthcare or education due to limited resources. As evidenced by Zimbabwe’s ailing healthcare system which is failing to provide and cater for the country’s pregnant women, with a daily average of four women dying every day while giving birth, as of last year according to the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (ZIMSTAT). Zimbabwe has been recorded to have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, putting more women and girls (particularly the rural women and girls with no proper financial back-up) in danger when giving birth (source Amnesty International and Giving Compass). Furthermore, this disparity is also seen in countries like Mali, with only 38 percent of girls finishing school due to the inaccessibility of education materials.
In recent years, there has been an increased focus on providing girls with access to quality education in Africa. This has been presented, in the form of initiatives such as the Education For All campaign which aims to provide universal access to quality education by 2030. This initiative has members that vary from national coalitions of like-minded organisations, be it national or international network of organisations and representative bodies operating across several countries. Coalitions such as Plan International (also found in Zimbabwe and Malawi), Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) and Tanzania Education Network (TEN).
A movement that began with helping women access basic life necessities and rights, feminism has aided immensely in the empowerment of all African women from different walks of life. Organisations such as Girl Up, which continue to aid in the fight against period poverty in Zimbabwe envision a more equitable and just world for girls and women, which benefits all people. The driving ideals in this work are the very same ideals that drive the feminist movement; equality for all. Furthermore, more organisations continue to be feminist-led, with the example of The Usawa Institute which aims to empower girls and women through advocacy and education. This is underscored even in the institutional motto which is ‘Towards an equitable Africa’
Feminism has assisted a lot of African women and girls, as evidenced through the empowerment of women and girls to receive education via initiatives such as encouraging more women to take up careers in STEM, to participate and learn new media practices in creative spaces, to expand space to have more female voices to tell the girl child’s story.
It is important to note that feminism is usually regarded as an ill-advised Western white woman’s practice that has been adopted by the modern African woman, to dilute and modernise the cultural practices in African communities. However, feminism is a very important movement that continues to fight for women’s freedom from practices such as child marriages, exclusion from education and female genital mutilation, amongst other dangerous practices that are still yet to be abolished in our African communities.
We need more African feminists and feminist-driven organisations to speak against the exclusion of women and girls in decision-making processes, access to health, social justice, and education and the increase of child marriages and pregnancies amongst African girls, which continue to be reflective experiences of the daily African women and girl’s struggles. The African feminist movement should be seen as a call to action for all African women to unite and stand together in pursuit of social justice and equality. We must continue to challenge oppressive systems, fight against gender-based violence, work towards achieving economic empowerment and strive for a world where everyone can live with dignity and respect. Feminism has saved a lot of women from undesirable situations that were either harmful or dangerous to their well-being.
By Takudzwa Nduku