Evidence and Collaboration for Inclusive Development

News—Zimbabwe

Men become caregivers at International Women’s Day celebrations

Mutasa District celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8th in unique style with men carrying the babies in a race to gender equality.

Men and women in Mutasa participating in a fun-run to commemorate the March 2021 International Women’s Day. Men carrying babies at their backs and some with dummy pregnancies whilst women carry nothing to demonstrate how unpaid care work limits women’s participation in leadership and decision-making.

Fun activities including runs, drama, poetry and singing competitions helped to bring the issues of gender equality to light for 100 women and men.

During the fun-run activity, women and men exchanged unpaid care roles and men went into the race carrying children on their backs and women without carrying anything. This symbolised the burden of unpaid care work that women face and how this limits their participating in leadership and decision-making processes.

Men with children on their backs and dummy pregnancies prepare to race women with nothing to carry.

The event, facilitated by Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE), Deaf Zimbabwe Trust and Mutasa Youth Forum brought women and men together to reflect and celebrate the progress made to achieve gender equality. They also discussed the challenges faced by women in 2020 brought about by the COVID19 virus which led to a twin pandemic of gender-based violence.

The women leaders vowed to continue claiming their space in the leadership and decision-making for a and men understood the importance of doing their part in unpaid care and domestic work.