ABSTRACT
A new moral dipstick now gauges the depth of a nation’s democratic and civilized character. Like river captains anxiously maneuvering up the Zambezi narrows, poking short poles into shallow waters, activists inside and outside African governments increasingly ask: Are women experiencing wider economic opportunities and more democratic roles at the grassroots? The question of how to reform gender relations is controversial in the southern African context where institutions—the family, workplace, and state—have been thoroughly patriarchal for centuries. No matter that the bulk of crops produced results from the toil of women and young girls; or that over half of all families are headed by women in much of Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana (Dixon-Mueller 1985). Only recently have these facts been publicly recognized. And the response of African governments is coming even more slowly, ever more cautiously. Why such a slow political response to such a pressing public problem?
