A Voice for the Voiceless: Young Women's Leadership Experiences in Zimbabwe

Abstract: The purpose of the study has been to gain an understanding of how socio-cultural structures and gender norms affect young women’s leadership possibilities. This has been explored through a qualitative case study focusing on how young women leaders, working with sexual and reproductive health rights issues, experience and pursue leadership in Zimbabwe. A theoretical framework based on contextual and relational understandings of women’s leadership and theories of gender relations, intersectionality and body politics was used to analyze the empirical data. The findings revealed that young women leaders have to challenge gender norms and confront negative attitudes as they are perceived as going against women’s expected role in society. In relation to other women leaders within the women’s movement, conflicts between young and older generations were evident. Mentorship and cooperation was seen as main opportunities to facilitate for more young women to pursue leadership. The study’s results showed that young women are put under a lot of pressure in terms of being leaders in an environment that is mainly dominated by men and older women, but also in terms of being role models for other “voiceless” young women.