December 2020 to March 2021

Continuous assessment (group assignment)

These instructions apply to all tasks

 Length of assignment should be at most 4 typed pages including references,
 Font size 12 Times New Roman
 1.5 line spacing
 Terminal references must be linked to in text references(at least five terminal references for every
task)
 Work in groups of at least six
 All assignments must use the prescribed assignment cover.
 Its mandatory that you attach the task you attempted, place it as the next page after assignment
cover

Task one

Be guided by the following text in answering the questions that follow

"In today's hyper commercialized media climate, Kilbourne's main point -- that advertising creates
a toxic cultural environment in which sexual objectification, physical subjugation and intellectual
trivialization of women has deep psychological and political resonance -- is more compelling than
ever. The media is killing women softly”

Jennifer L. Pozner | Executive Director of Women in Media & News | Author of Reality Bites
Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV

Questions

1 (a) State and explain how the media is “killing women softly” (10)

(b) How can the media reduce construction of gender inequalities in your country? (10)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task 2
Write a paper on gender based violence to be presented at your University. The paper should be
guided by the following :
a) What is gender based violence? (2)

b) Forms of gender based violence(4)

c) Causes of gender based violence (4)

d) Why male students fail to report cases of gender based violence.(4)
e) What can be done to curb gender based violence at your University(6)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task three

3. Read the except below and answer the questions that follow;
Although the state has enacted the Domestic Violence Act, there still exist challenges in the
enforcement. In the process of delivering protection order papers, perpetrators tend to escape
reception of the paper work, and this defeats the interim order which should protect the
complainant up until the dates of court hearing. Legally, once the accused receives the
protection order papers, the interim order which is meant to protect the complainant until the
court judgement is heard becomes valid. A given example is that of a man who hid his identity
from the police officer who had come to serve him with protection order papers. His wife
heard him deny his identity but could not come out and confirm her husband’s identity to the
police officer. This resulted in the man escaping reception of the paper work, and thereby
blocking the whole process of the protection order application. This therefore implies that once
the perpetrator escapes reception of the protection order paper, the complainant will be at
greater risk of being accused even more since the former (perpetrator) will be aware of the
intentions of the latter (complainant).
(Extract from The Constitutional and Legal Frameworks for the Protection of Women against
Violence in Zimbabwe – Pamela Machakanja, Deliah Jeranyama and Eunice Bere 2016; 22)

i. Identify and briefly explain the challenges in the enforcement of gender progressive laws
laws ?(10)
ii. Provide and explain the possible solutions to eradicate gender inequality in our societies?
(10)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task four

Despite decades of effort to create fair classrooms and schools, gender bias is alive and well, and in
some ways growing. School practices continue to send boys and girls down different life paths, too
often treating them not as different genders but as different species. Teachers and parents often miss
the subtle signs of sexism in classrooms. Through firsthand observations and up-to-the-minute
research, schools are Still Failing at Fairness in issues relating to equal opportunities for girls and
boys in education.

Adopted from David Sadker, Myra Sadker & Karen Zittleman(1994) Still failing at fairness: how
gender bias cheats girls and boys in school and what we can do about it.
https://www.agsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Sadker.pdf Retrieved from

Questions
4
(a) How does gender socialisation in schools contribute to gender inequality in your society? (5)
(b) State and explain in detail the provisions of one piece of legislation and one policy that promote
gender equality in education. Make reference to the latest versions of these documents. (10)
(c) Suggest strategies that can be used to make the gender terrain in education more even (5)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task five

Gava’s wife died when she was giving birth to their fifth child. He was 55 years by then and the wife
was 39 years. His wife’s sisters aged 30, 28 and 25 years old were pledged as the pool from which
Gava could choose another wife. The two older sisters had a child each out of wedlock. Gava chose
Viola, the younger one who had no child and had not attempted any marriage. The younger sister
accepted the marriage because her in-law was well up and she was made to believe that the ancestors
would bless her for agreeing to go and look after her sister’s children. Ten years later, Viola had borne
three children but she began to feel the challenges of an inter-generational marriage. This was
compounded by a spinal injury that affected Gava. She started having extra marital affairs with other
men. Gava’s sisters confronted Viola over the issue of infidelity but went on to suggest that it would
be less embarrassing for the family if Viola would confine her sexual liaisons with members of the
family. She had an affair with Gava’s brother but when his wife discovered it, the relations became
tense. They ended the affair and she turned to Gava’s nephew. Unfortunately Gava’s nephew is HIV
positive. When Gava learnt of the affair, he lamented ‘Viola you have embarrassed me! You are a
direct contrast to your sister! What is it that I did not give to you….name it, money, food, clothes?
You do not appreciate!”

Questions

5(a) Identify and explain three gender issues in this passage (6)

(b)Suggest three gender reasons why Gava chose the youngest of the sisters? (6)

(c) Gava does not seem to understand the behaviour of his young wife. Why is this so? (8)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task Six

During the Women in Development (WID) approach strategies in the form of projects like cattle
fattenning, marketing, sewing, knitting, embroidery, peanut butter making were put in place to improve
the living standards of women and to minimise their disadvantages in the productive sector.Preschools
and nursery schools were also established. All this was meant to meet women’s practical gender needs
(PGN) rather than Strategic gender needs(SGN).

Questions

6(a)define and explain with examples the terms practical gender needs and strategic gender needs(8)

(b)why did WID fail to address the subordinate position of women(give two reasons )(4)

(c) Discuss the view that “it is the subordination of women that causes their poverty leading to their
subordination”

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task seven

Motherhood is an uncontested fact while fatherhood is a belief or probability. The Harare civil court
revealed that 72% of men keep other men’s children. In one article in a local newspaper there was once an
article of twins with different fathers. Women give pregnacy to men who can support their kids or from
whom maintanace can be claimed. In a Ndebele culture children born out of weddlock remain with their
mothers kins(uncles and grandparents as guardians) unless the bride price has been paid. Traditionally in
most cultures in Southern Africa,secret arrangements were made with brothers, cousins and nephews to
father children for their unfortunate relatives. Many men slept in the dust of the earth not knowing that
they had no children. The probability of fatherhood continues even today.

7(a) Why is it difficult for most men to prove whether the children in their families are theirs(4)

(b) Give and explain three reasons why women make men look after children who are not theirs? (4)

(c) Give two gender reasons why the burden of child care is placed on men’s shoulders(4)

(d) As a gender expert how would you help

(i) men who later on realise that children in his custodianship are not his (4)

(ii) women who falsely claim fatherhood status to wrong men (4)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task 8.

Women continue to be denied the right to education, employment and decision making in issues
relating to child bearing and rearing. Child bearing and rearing confine them to the private sphere yet
the capitalists await their labour in the private sphere. In all capitalist patriarchal societies, there is
more realization of women and more privatization of women than men in urban areas.
a) Identify the theory with the above exposition. (2 marks).
b) How do the demands of capitalists in the public sphere conflict with those of the patriarchal
men in the private sphere? (6 marks).
c) Identify and explain three ways in which women are ruralised in agro based economies in
Africa. (6 marks).
d) Discuss three ways in which women are confined to private work in urban and industrialized
societies. (6 marks).

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task 9

Read the case study and answer the questions that follow.

Land tenure rights for women have been an issue since the colonial times. Women still own less land whether
solely or jointly than men. It is important to have a narrative that addresses the plight of women’s land tenure
rights in Zimbabwe.

a)Identify and explain five challenges that women face in accessing land in your country (10 marks)

b. Make a gender analysis of the intersection between land reform and food security in your country (5)

c. Briefly explain how you would promote gender equality in land tenure systems. (5)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester

Task 10

The following excerpt graphically captures the multifacetted discrimination and exploitation of women.

When men leave their villages for better paid jobs in cities or abroad women get saddled with the farm
work as well as their domestic chores. When bloated state enterprises “rationalise” their workforces,
women get laid off before male “heads of households.”Whe sweatshops seek underpaid casual
labour,women are the first to be hired.

When newly rich men dabble in vice ,village girls get dragooned into prostitution and middle aged matrons
wind up divorced.Yet when fast changing lifestyles provoke a traditionalist backlash,patriarchy reasserts
itself with vengeance. When inflation bins up dowries and social pressure depress birth rates, girl babies get
aborted or murdered in their cribs to make way for male heirs.When the resulting skew in the sex ratio
makes for a shortage of marriageable women, a black market arises for kidnapped brides.

Source Far Eastern Economic Review,1997)

Questions

10

(a) Briefly explain the economic, social and cultural disparities that have been pointed out in the excerpt
above .(12)
(b) State and briefly explain strategies that have been put in place to reduce prevalent economic ,social,
and cultural disparities in your country.(8)

Assignment one for December 2020 to March 2021 semester