Is affirmative action still necessary in Zimbabwean HE?

In 1998, the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education proclaimed that further efforts were required to eliminate all gender stereotyping in higher education to consolidate women’s participation at all levels and in all disciplines in which they were underrepresented.

In the intervening years, Zimbabwe’s government had been working on removing barriers for women’s access to higher education as students transitioned from secondary school into institutions of higher learning.

To address gender disparities at the level of higher education, and in an effort to widen access and opportunities as well as choices for women, the government had, in 1995, introduced affirmative action to place more females at universities. At the time, only 25% of enrolled students were women.

Affirmative action refers to a body of policies and procedures designed to eliminate discrimination against marginalised groups, including ethnic minorities and women. Its main objective is to redress the effects of past discrimination.

In the case of Zimbabwe, affirmative action was implemented by lowering university entry levels for female students.

Fast forward to January 2022 when University World News reported that, in terms of enrolment at Zimbabwe’s universities and teacher training colleges, there had been more female students in the past two to three years than male students.

The Education Statistics Report 2018-20 released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency in December 2021 stated that 50,699 female students were recruited in universities in 2018 compared with 43,432 males, while, in 2019, 60,149 women enrolled in comparison to 51,535 men. In 2020, the numbers were 62,629 and 53,699, respectively.

In line with that, female dominance within higher education appeared to have continued into 2021.

For example, of the 5,483 students capped by President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the University of Zimbabwe in 2021, female students made up 53%, a trend which the university has been recording over the past two years.

Similarly, at the Zimbabwe Open University, 54% of the 1,367 graduates were women.

Although questions have been raised during the past few years over the continuation of the policy, the education statistics and graduations at the University of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Open University have recently prompted critics to say that affirmative action in Zimbabwe is leading to reverse discrimination. Many are asking: Should affirmative action continue and at what stage must the policy be scrapped?

Why are females dominating?

Professor Rugare Mareva of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe school of education and culture at the Great Zimbabwe University, who conducted a study in 2014 in which male students opposed affirmative action, told University World News that his findings remain relevant today.

“What is now required is a new investigation on the domination of female students. The question is, what is happening to the male students? Are males venturing into other areas? It’s an issue for another study.”

In his 2014 study titled ‘Affirmative Action by Lowering University Entry Points for Females: Great Zimbabwe University students’ views’, Mareva wrote that, before government introduced affirmative action, fewer females reached university.

In 1996, the University of Zimbabwe had a total of 5,444 male students, compared to 2,408 females while, at Great Zimbabwe University, students’ admission records show that the university had a total of 3,324 male students compared to 2,794 female students in the first half of 2009.

The majority of the male university students interviewed for the study were against affirmative action benefiting female students and argued that there was a need to do away with the policy.

Should affirmative action be scrapped?

Although this was several years ago, activists are not convinced that affirmative action should be scrapped yet.

Nancy Njenge, the gender secretary of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, told University World News that having more female students enrolled or graduating in Zimbabwe was not a good measure to arrive at the conclusion that it was time to end affirmative action in the country.

“For example, in trying to get a medical degree, women still have the burden of domestic chores at home, unlike men,” she pointed out.

“You will see that in a set-up where there are twins, male and female, traditionally, a female student does all the work and even washes for her brother, but the male counterpart will be studying and doing things that he wants with his time.

“When to stop affirmative action depends on addressing the gender gap that exists in society: when men and women are treated equally, when women are relieved of the domestic chores when they are studying, when both men and women do the same chores at home like doing dishes and laundry. When both male and female students have equal time to study, then we take it from there,” she added.

Ruvimbo Gwatidzo, the University of Zimbabwe Student Representative Council secretary for academic and legal affairs, said that, even though affirmative action is still necessary, recent results of the high school public examination required for entry into university show that women are going to university on merit.

She said the University of Zimbabwe law school offers an example. “From the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council statistics, females are actually performing better than their male counterparts at that level.”

In 2021, female students’ pass rate was 89.04% compared to their male counterparts, whose pass rate was 84.7%.

“From these statistics, we can say that, if we had a level playing field for females and males, we would have even more females in tertiary institutions than males. So, to claim that the affirmative action is leading to more females graduating than males would be a fallacy,” she said.

“I would also want to refer to the University of Zimbabwe law school where they have since abandoned affirmative action in admitting students because they receive more applications from females than males.”

Gwatidzo said the fact that males still dominate in the sciences and technology fields, for instance, can be attributed to cultural and social stereotypes around what women can and cannot do.

She said women have been made to believe that they lack the capacity to experiment and come up with scientific and technological advancements.

“This is obviously not true, because a recent study in Australia shows that females perform the same as boys in science, technology, engineering and maths, or STEM, subjects but they perform better than boys in humanities.

“This is the reason why they always end up opting for careers in the humanities rather than in sciences),” Gwatidzo added.

50-50 target remains

Ekenia Chifamba, the founding director of a local non-governmental organisation, Shamwari Yemwanasikana (Exclusive Friend of the Girl Child), said narrowing the gender gap created over a historical period cannot be objectively evaluated through one variable: an increase in more females graduating from universities, without setting the parameters in a specific comparative time frame.

“This is based on the fact that there is no research that proves a direct correlation between affirmative action and this increase [in females graduating].

“If at all, it is a clouded approach that might reverse the gains of this affirmative action by purporting that the historical gender inequalities in education between male and females has been minimised.

“For example, five years on record of more females graduating than males can never be on par with the number of their male counterparts that have graduated, maybe since 1980,” she said.

“As Shamwari Yemwanasikana, we believe in equity and a conducive environment for all children, boys included. However, the historical inequalities perpetuated over time have always had a bearing on the girl child, hence, the need for girls to be supported to gain such opportunities.”

Lindiwe Maphosa, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education, innovation, science and technology development, said only after 50-50 is attained in all spheres can the policy be reviewed.

“The measure was taken after thorough assessment on female roles compared to that of their male counterparts. It was a measure meant to promote women so that, even though they have a lot of barriers, they also access education.

“There is no [reverse] discrimination and, until we attain the 50-50 mark in all institutions, we should maintain affirmative action,” she said.