CHAPTER 7: THE GENDERED ASPECTS OF ACCESS TO AND UTILISATION OF
7.12 Understanding time use patterns
169 proud that she could gather the clan for her daughter who was to be married. This was of significance as it was traditionally believed children, especially girls of widowed women lacked discipline. The women felt they were independent to some extent. It was also strategic on the part of the women to continue with the linkages with the extended family members. This was important for the children as linkages with their patriarchal relatives were considered important should they need to deal with ancestral spiritual issues in the future. Tatenda explained as follows,
A widow is not really respected in the village. People expect the worst from us and our children and I don’t know why this is so. I am particularly pleased that my daughter has shown the village that widowhood is not associated with failure. We are also capable of doing well and raising well behaved children. I feel proud to have set the example. My daughter is my pride. (Tatenda, female participant, date of interview, 27 June 2016).
170 Figure 7.1: Typical day for women and men
A woman’s work is never done
In order to understand time use, women and men from all the wards under discussion were asked to come up with a typical day in the life of a woman and man in Goromonzi. The day was collated and showed the following for women:
Wakes up at 4 am if there is the moon (that is the clock), does the sweeping, cleaning and washing of dishes from the previous night.
6:00 am – she will prepare for the children/grandchildren to go to school, and for the husband in married male headed households.
For men, at this time, if there are dairy cattle, they would prepare cattle for milking and bring the milk home for use for the preparation of breakfast.
At about 6:30 the women then join the men in the field where they will work till about 10:00 where they will break. During the planting season– they are both active in the field, one plants and the other drops the fertiliser and covers the seed hole.
At about 10:00am the men take a break and rest. During breakfast, because the husbands are served first as the order of protocol based on hierarchy.
After breakfast, the men take the time to visit the local shopping centre where they socialise with other men. The women may relax for a few minutes after breakfast (to allow the food to settle as they call it).
At about 11.00 they tend to the home garden, open up the free range chickens, and attend to any laundry and other household chores. She may also instruct her children/grandchildren to open up the kraals for the cattle to graze.
The women start to prepare for lunch at about 13:00hrs. Lunch is usually a simple meal.
Depending on the season, it can be cobs of maize with a local home brew “mahewu” or sadza (thick porridge) with the vegetable in season.
Depending on how much work needs to be done, the women might go back to the field after lunch and the men will continue to socialise in the beer halls or at one of the villagers’
homestead.
171 Both women and men agree that the way the men behave is influenced by the way they were raised. The women believe they were made to be resilient and to be able to work more than men.
At about 4p.m, if the husband is not around especially for those whose husbands have migrated, and the children or grandchildren have not returned from school, the women will then go and collect the cattle and put these in the cattle pen. If he is there, or a son, they would do the cattle round up.
Then the woman will prepare to bath and start the evening meal. As they eat the evening meal, they would start to plan for the following day and would also ensure they had
“mahewu”2. If there is a community activity going on e.g. training, the women will wake up earlier and sleep later to make up for the time they would have spent attending the meeting.
Typical day of the man in the community
They wake up in the morning and go to the field at the same time as the women. If there is a dairy cow, they are also responsible for milking and they usually do so immediately they come back from the field. They work together with the women in the field. During periods of rest, they drink “mahewu” which would have been brewed a day or two in advance.
Mahewu is handy when there is not enough firewood to be cooking meals in the day. The women then heat the water for the man to bath. The water is heated for the man and he takes a bath and then he rests. The men might collect some firewood, using the scotch carts. This however is dependent on the nature and dynamics within the household. Some men work and assist the women. Where the husband does not assist, the woman ends up taking on extra roles to compensate for the husband’s laxity. or when it is a female headed household. The men have their water heated by women, especially in winter for bathing. If it’s hot, they will place the water outside where it is heated using the sun.
Men may also do “maricho”(this is working on neighbouring farms for additional income).
I then engaged in a group discussion with both women and men showing them the way they had summarised a typical day for each. The men expressed the view that the work women undertook was acceptable, and there was not much they could do to question cultural norms.
2 This is a home brewed drink made from maize meal and fermented with malt.
172 However, the women felt the men had over done their roles. One that stood out was that of
“maricho”, where it was felt the women were mostly responsible for this. The women argued that the men were generally proud and would not engage in “maricho” when there were younger children who could be sent to do that. Consensus building on the time use was not very easy as men also felt the women had overdone their roles. In the end, we agreed that this was an exercise that they could use to reflect on their relations within the household and should not be taken as an exercise to create contentions.
7. 13 Children’s roles
Girls’ roles usually mirror those of their mothers or grandmothers. This was considered as part of the socialisation process and preparation for adulthood and marriage. Both boys and girls were given time to do their school work. They also attended community meetings where they were taught family laws, inheritance, and progressive lifestyles. These had also been introduced into the school curriculum. Those in female headed households would do more work according to the female household heads’ needs.