ABSTRACT
The objective of this chapter is to assess the strides that Zimbabwe has made in terms of achieving gender equality. It specifically focuses on an androcentric process of the government policy of anthroponymic naming of streets in the Central Business District (CBD) of Harare as a selective process of excluding women from the development of the nation. Immediately after achieving independence, Zimbabwe set out a gender equality agenda culminating into two fundamental legislative frameworks: the current constitution and the strategic plan on the National Gender Policy (2013–2017) to encourage nationalization and a path of development which took women on board. The study critically evaluates the street linguistic landscape in the CBD of Harare and reviews how naming of streets has marginalized women religiously, socially, and politically. The study is a partially mixed-method desk research, which involves the analysis of the street map of the Harare CBD to determine the syntax (distribution) and semantics (meaning) of streets by gender. Analysis of the map indicates that there is an imbalance in terms of the naming of streets in the CBD with only one street on the periphery of the CBD named after a woman. This study is couched within critical toponomastics description, observing how the re-inscription process has resulted in gender inequality rather than equality. Categories of anthroponymys are established and are subjected to a quantitative–qualitative appraisal. It is therefore the argument of this chapter that the street linguistics landscape of Harare, having one street named after a woman and further perpherizing the street from the CBD, seeks to write off women’s spirituality and political significance from the urban space. This shows a marked exclusion of women from the economic, cultural, and social spheres of the urban space. Hence, the study argues that a gender-inclusive street re-inscription practice should be upheld as per the dictates of the Zimbabwean Constitution and the National Gender Policy of the country so as to acknowledge that women are part of the developmental agenda of Zimbabwe.
