Building a Nexus between Feminist Perceptions and Gender-based Violence

The case of Harare Province

Abstract

The study sought to interrogate men and women’s perceptions of feminism and build a nexus between those perceptions of Gender-Based Violence. Gender-based violence manifests as physical, social, emotional and psychological violence among people especially when interlinked with feminist discourse. The study was carried out utilizing the mixed methods paradigm. One hundred males and 100 females took part in the quantitative study while 4 focus group discussions were conducted with 40 persons and 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Findings from the study show that 76% of respondents from the study recognise the concept of feminism as the fight for equal rights, 12% as the empowerment of women, 6% acknowledged it as a move to take over the roles of men while the other 6% understand feminism as a move to ensure that women make decisions normally made by men. Forty percent of the respondents stated that the call for equality breaks families apart, 27% of the respondents indicated that feminism unites families while the other 20% indicated that feminism is a necessary evil. As such, this article recommends the alignment of feminist discourses to indigenous practices in a manner that does not seek to disrupt the social order of African society.