Ruth Butaumocho — The political reign of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel comes to an end this year after being at the helm of Europe’s largest economy.

Merkel will step down from her position after serving the country for 15 years and as one of the de-facto leaders of Europe.

In so doing, she successfully earned the Forbes title of “most powerful woman in the world” every year for a decade.

Probably the second most revered female leader in Europe after Margaret Thatcher “The Iron Lady”, who served as the prime minister of Britain for more than a decade, Merkel’s political career can best be described as “pristine”.

In the last few weeks, the Western media has been agog with her exit from the political arena, digging into the archives for glowing articles on her days as the scientist and as a politician of repute.

What is coming out clearly is that despite her dressing, which the media often described as “frugal”, Merkel is being touted as one of the few skilled politicians who knew how to operate at the world’s stage, which is not an easy task.

As the most powerful woman in Germany and probably the European Union leaves the political stage this year, Merkel is leaving at a time when the world is riveted by the dwindling number of female politicians across the world.

Her presence and that of few other top female leaders globally has translated into similar success for other female leaders and neither has it created adequate space for women to ensure gender equality at the top.

According to the UN Women, as of September 1, 2021, there were 26 women serving as heads of state and/or government in 24 countries out of the world’s 196 countries. At the current rate, UN Women notes that the gender equality in the highest positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years.

The statistics from UN Women are not alarmist as many would want to believe, but point to a serious challenge that global leaders need to address to ensure inclusion of women in governance and in meaningful positions.

The battle for attaining high political offices for women is real, not only in Europe, but across Africa and in our backyard garden, if activities on the ground are anything to go by.

Of the 22 African countries that held elections last year — 12 of them presidential–not even a single presidential candidate made it into the presidium, while only less than a third of the political aspirants were appointed as ministers in the various countries.

By the end of this year, 13 African countries — including Zambia which had elections — would have held presidential elections, which under normal circumstances should be an opportunity for the continent to increase female leadership in governance.

However, what happened in the just-ended Zambian elections attests to the challenges female political aspirants experience in their attempt to be elected into political offices.

Even in the absence of political violence, structural challenges at political parties make in practically impossible for female candidates to be chosen to represent their political party in such highly contested parliamentary and presidential elections, because they are often deemed as “weak and incapable” of fending off fierce political competition.

According to Iknowpolitics.org, political parties fielded less women than those that contested in the Zambian 2011 elections, narrowing the chances of women to land any meaningful posts.

In addition, Zambia has no reserved seats for women in the National Assembly; although Article 69 of the Constitutional Amendment Act of 2016 allows the president to nominate up to eight persons to enhance gender representation in the National Assembly.

Effectively, Zambia has the legal provisions on paper, but there was no political will to ensure that the interest of women were taken care of.

The situation that preceded in Zambia of a vacuum in implementation of policies mirrors what is happening Africa, where political have taken upon it themselves to dismantle existing legal provisions that call for the inclusion of women in politics, in an attempt to push for more men.

In the last few weeks, the local media has been running sad narratives of bruising battles of aspiring politicians within political parties as Zimbabwe prepares for the 2023 Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

Whether the stories are real and imagined, what is clear is that the trajectory points to a very sad and unfortunate development waiting to unfold where female political aspirants may find themselves in the cold as men jostle for powerful positions within political parties ahead of 2023

That development alone will render useless the zebra policy that calls for the inclusion of a woman for every two men elected into power within political parties. The need for gender equality in political governance is not something the nation can debate at this stage, because it is imperative in as much it is both a Constitutional and human right.

The Constitution in section 17, provides a strong framework that promotes full gender balance in Zimbabwe by ensuring the full participation of women in all spheres of the economy.

The decision by the Government to call for equality is not ill-conceived and neither is it mischievous for women in political governance, but it is the universal acknowledgment that women as much right as men to govern.

The role of women in decision-making is a key condition for women’s empowerment, in addition to being a basic human right of women to participate in decisions that affect their lives and their future.