Work/life balance for women in Zimbabwe
by Linda Hein
Virginia Mapedzahama has been comparing the work/life balance of Australian and Zimbabwean women - and her findings offer some striking insights into the reality of life in her homeland.
UniSA PhD graduate, Virginia Mapedzahama’s thesis explores how women in diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds negotiate the boundaries between paid work and family life – and it contradicts the misconception that African women have Western expectations of work/life balance.
"In an economically-challenged country like Zimbabwe, the risk of poverty results in work/life balance taking on an entirely new meaning," Mapedzahama said.
"Culturally, women in Zimbabwe are expected to be responsible for their children but also bring income into the family.
"However, a situation of rapid economic decline means they have to intensify their activity, taking on additional work to feed their families and avoid poverty, which includes growing and selling food as a side activity, taking on sewing jobs, and other activities that often mirror home activities.
"These roles are still regarded as solely women’s roles and this essentially means a ‘third shift’ for the day, in addition to their first as a paid worker, and their second as a wife and/or mother."
In keeping with Australian findings, the excessive work hours mean less time for family and personal life, but Mapedzahama says the real struggle lies in finding enough time for the extra tasks that provide much needed extra money.
"Long hours are an obvious issue and all the women acknowledged difficulty negotiating between their paid work, their informal work and their family life," she said.
"However, the emphasis is on the difference the extra income generating activities make to their survival, and not on the conflict that engaging in the extra activities means to their daily work and life.
"The women I interviewed had not even questioned their multiple roles, and they had certainly never thought of them as a burden before.
"One interviewee said, ‘What’s the use in complaining when the family is suffering from hunger?’"
"They have to put the needs and survival of the family ahead of the individual, and this is characteristic of many African cultures. The Shona culture supports the economic power of women to earn money and provide for the economic survival of their close families and extended kin.
"Culturally, the concept of motherhood is also quite different to a Western concept. In Zimbabwe, it’s more of a concept of economic motherhood, the ability to feed and shelter family, rather than the hands on motherhood here in Australia.
Despite the differences between Adelaide and Harare, Mapedzahama is convinced that a Western concept of work/life balance could still prove valuable to non-Western situations.
"A useful work/life metaphor in Africa would pay attention to particularities in African conditions, such as poverty, lack of government funded social security and thus the imperative for individuals to work intensively.