Women's Empowerment in southern Africa: The Case of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique

Abstract: In Africa, women's status in politics, their economic standard and their position within social hierarchies and practices is subordinated to that of men. The aim of this thesis is to examine how colonialism, liberation ideology and women's movements have influenced the empowerment of women in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique and attempt to account for why women in South Africa have attained a higher level of political empowerment than women in the other two countries. This thesis uses the theory of intersectional to analyze the intersection and interaction of gender, displacement and tradition in order to account for the creation of female identities and how these have influenced women's empowerment. Similar historic events and processes have been compared and discussed using the method of Similar Systems Design to pin point differences between the countries. I have found that women in South Africa, in contrast to women in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, were able to access colonial urban centers which in turn gave them the opportunity to gain organizational and institutional experience. Such experience together with greater gender awareness and the advantage of learning from developments in Zimbabwe and Mozambique has meant that South African women have attained a high level of political empowerment.