Susie Jacobs

Women and land resettlement in Zimbabwe

Peasant demand for land is one of the crucial issues determining Zimbabwes strategy for agrarian transformation. Yet womens demand for land has been ignored. Susie Jacobs traces the development of gender divisions in pre‐independence Zimbabwe and argues that current land resettlement models discriminate against women. Policies towards women are limited in scope and reinforce the domestic domain despite womens contribution to Zimbabwes struggle. If a socialist strategy does not confront gender hierarchy, womens struggles will have to take on a new form.

Women in Zimbabwe: Stated Policy and State Action

This chapter will examine aspects of state policy towards black women in independent Zimbabwe. Although the woman question in state policy making is intertwined with more general social, economic and political questions, there are nevertheless areas of State policy which are specifically gender-based and which bear separate examination. These areas include laws affecting women’ female participation in production, fertility and the recent ‘clean-up’ campaigns.

GENDER AND LAND REFORM: ZIMBABWE AND SOME COMPARISONS

The article compares a study of Zimbabwean land reform with several others of the same individualised holdings type in Africa and elsewhere. It makes the point that land reform programmes should be analysed with regard both to gender and class relations among the peasantry. After discussing the historical background to Zimbabwean resettlement policies, the case study takes up topics such as the provision of services, community formation, class divisions, changes in family structure and division of labour and the impact of state officials. The Zimbabwean reform appears to have had more positive effects on women than have most of the others examined. This may be due to the recent prosperity of the Resettlement Areas studied, to the (mixed) impact of a nuclear family model, and to the influence of state officials in curbing male behaviour. However, as in other cases, since women are not granted land rights, they remain dependants of men.

Past wrongs and gender rights: Issues and conflicts in South Africa's land reform

South Africas agrarian situation presents a range of daunting issues, including extreme rural poverty and a government hindered by severe financial constraints. At the same time, the countrys attempts to incorporate gender issues into land reform, are virtually unique. The study discusses several major issues which confront the present Pilot Programme, and any future reform: demand for land; demand for services; the issue of ‘the household’; traditional authorities; forms of land tenure; and the nature of public participation. The analysis stresses that all of these are gender issues, as is the extent of conflict raised through overt discussion of gender processes. None of these questions has a straightforward ‘answer ‘ but their consideration is likely instead to raise additional questions.

Interactional issues in the teaching of ‘race’ and ethnicity in UK higher education

This paper draws on research into the teaching of ‘race’ and ethnicity in higher education, including interviews with lecturers and students of specialist sociology of ‘race’ options. It focuses particularly on interactional issues: the conversations conducted about ‘race’ and ethnicity within seminar rooms were often conflictual and emotional in tone. The topics around which conflicts emerged are discussed: the most common areas of conflict were around Islamophobia, anti‐Jewish racism and gender/sexuality; anti‐black racism, British/English nationalism and anti‐Irish racism were also expressed, but less frequently. Women lecturers were more likely to experience conflicts than were men. The paper analyses some factors underlying these processes: these include the perhaps inherent difficulty of teaching subjects in which discrimination and violence feature large; wider political conflicts and ‘identity politics’ as played out within the micro‐settings of seminars; and the emotions mobilised in the process of teaching.

Land to the Tiller? Gender Relations and Land Reforms

This paper examines the gendered effects of different types of land tenure in land reform programmes, comparing individual household/family allocation with that in cooperatives/collectives. Summarising African, Asian and Latin American cases, it takes a broad perspective. The results of land reforms along individual household lines are strikingly similar. All programmes assign land to household heads, usually husbands, following the populist stereotype of ‘undifferentiated peasant family farms’. This factor disadvantages wives, although others such as increased food security are beneficial. Many (not all) wives gain in terms of material comfort but may lose power within households, and come to have access to land only through men. Cooperatives/collectives have become highly unpopular, due to a variety of factors, e.g. the experience of forced collectivisation; patronage-mongering and (for some husbands/fathers), fear of loss of control over female labour and sexuality. Despite real problems, some advantag...

Globalisation, anti-globalisation and the Jewish 'question'

This article explores the relation between globalisation and images of Jews. Globalisation along neoliberal lines has often had serious impacts on the livelihoods of the poor, particularly in the global South: economic distress must be taken seriously when discussing how ‘old’ images of the ‘economic Jew’ emerge within social movements. Resistance to negative economic effects of globalisation takes a number of forms, some advocating a return to more enclosed societies; others, building international links while opposing neoliberalism. However, images of Jews as representing finance capital are recurrent; this is in part because these are rooted in European Jewish history. Although such imagery is not pervasive within anti-globalisation movements, there has been some crossover between Left and Right. There exists a temptation to split off ‘bad’/unwanted parts of capitalism; this can only be confronted through the difficult work of analysing globalised capitalist systems.

Sexual harassment in an east African agribusiness supply chain

This article discusses sexual harassment in the east African cut-flower and horticultural industry, based on research on 62 farms in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It argues that sexual harassment is fostered both by coercive labour conditions within global value chains and by existing hierarchical gender relations. The research finds that harassment is widespread, that many lack a vocabulary to describe or discuss this, and that female casual and temporary workers are most likely to be targeted. Action research coupled with organisation of workers, however, has been effective in giving ‘voice’ to those suffering harassment: this is a first step in a feminist labour mobilisation and policy formulation. Procedures against sexual harassment are beginning to be formulated: a key concern is implementation. Addressing sexual harassment is central in ensuring the security of working people, particularly the most marginalised.