CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN PARTICIPATING IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNINGAT THE ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY:A Case of Matabeleland North and Bulawayo Regions

Abstract

This paper recognizes that women‘s participation in higher education is very low.Women’s marginalization in higher education stems from the traditional patriarchaltendencies, customary law and colonialism. The paper discusses the opportunities andchallenges that female students face in trying to access distance education in Zimbabwe.Female students are under-represented at ZOU, the sole open and distance learninginstitution in Zimbabwe. The female student population is worsened by the fact that alarger proportion of them than male students drop out. The reasons for this are multiplebut revolve around women’s multiple roles of home keeper, wife and mother. The paperfocuses on Matabeleland North and Bulawayo Regions in order to compare a rural and anurban set up. Data was collected from ZOU students and lecturers through in-depthinterviews. It is hoped the paper will bring to the fore the various challenges that femalestudents encounter and finally emerge with some possible intervention strategies thatcould help increase the number of female students’ participation in distance education.The Gender approach to development (GAD) will also guide this study. GAD analysishighlights the incentives and constraints associated with the work of women and menand highlights differences in their roles, workloads, access to resources and decisionmaking opportunities, the impact of interventions on them and the implications forplanning and implementation. The gender approach to development advocates for thelessening of social inequalities between men and women. Gender as a policy criterion hasbeen found to reduce poverty, raises farm efficiency and improves natural resourcesmanagement (Ellis, 2000). It also emphasises participatory approaches as a tool toempower women through their articulation of their needs, rights and capabilities.Communities should be encouraged to embrace the gender approach when focusing ondevelopment issues in communities. Once women are empowered and have the social andeconomic resources the quality of life of their households improves. If women thereforecontribute so much to the social well-being of families in particular and communities ingeneral it is therefore necessary for policy makers to develop policies that enablecommunities to improve women’s access to resources like distance education.