BY MUSA MAKINA BEHIND every successful man is a woman, is a tired cliché in reference to the fact that a man’s achievements are made possible by the support and work of their wife or female partner. In one of the Shona dialects and loosely translated into the Queen’s language, an axiom goes like this: “There is no home without a woman.” Conversant of their important role in society, the sad part is that women in society generally and female politicians in particular have been known to undermine themselves, as they fight petty and trivial wars, leading to the domination of men. While women have played a huge role in lifting up their male counterparts, the same cannot be said about them in terms of supporting each other. According to UN Women, women make up more than two-thirds of the world’s population yet their participation in electoral and governance processes — where decisions regarding their lives are made — remains peripheral in many countries. In Zimbabwe women constitute 52% of the population yet they are missing in decision-making positions. While the now common pull-her-down syndrome cuts across the generality of women, the trend has become more pronounced in their political participation. A classic case in Zimbabwe was in 2014 when the then first lady, Grace Mugabe, went on a crusade, shellacking and humiliating former vice-president Joice Mujuru, who was ultimately forced out of the ruling Zanu PF. The fall of Mujuru, a liberation icon and a veteran politician was largely influenced by another woman, Grace, a political novice, whose only claim to politics was being the wife of the then president, Robert Mugabe. This and many other “fights” involving women in politics has greatly worked against the country’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 of achieving gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030. This is also despite the fact that many developing countries have ratified regional and international conventions and protocols on gender equality and women political participation, Zimbabwe included. In her address ahead of last year’s district coordinating committee (DCC) elections in Gweru, Zanu PF secretary for Women’s League, Marble Chinomona, appeared to endorse the widely held view that women do not support each other. “President Mnangagwa is pro-women empowerment and it’s unfortunate that women are not voting for other women despite constituting 52% of the population. We will continue to engage women at workshops to encourage them to be active and contest positions in the party and the economy,” Chinomona said. As noted in the 2030 Agenda for SDGs, women’s equal participation with men in power and decision-making is part of their fundamental right to participate in political life, and at the core of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Top MDC Alliance official Thabitha Khumalo blamed Zimbabwe’s patriarchal society that tends to favour men ahead of women. “Women pull each other down because they are not empowered in skills and ideologies on how to tackle political issu