African Women 
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| Title: | Patriarchal social formations in Zimbabwe |
| Author: | Folbre, N. |
| Book title: | Patriarchy and class: African women in the home and the workforce |
| Year: | 1988 |
| Pages: | 61-80 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Zimbabwe |
| Subjects: | patriarchy women history |
| Abstract: | Central to a new interpretation of the political and economic evolution of Zimbabwean society is the concept of patriarchal social relations. Four related points pertain to different periods of Zimbabwe's history: (1) Precolonial Zimbabwean society can best be characterized as a patriarchal tributary social formation. Patriarchal social relations among both the Shona and Ndebele that enabled men to extract a surplus from women and children were overlaid by tributary relations that funneled surplus to an Ndebele military elite. (2) After 1886, the Rhodesian Native Reserves system not only served the interests of white employers but also helped African men maintain patriarchal control over women. (3) The rapid population growth that contributed to the destabilization of colonial rule after 1940 was an important outcome of the juxtaposition of strong patriarchal social relations in the Native Reserves with new health technologies introduced by colonial capital. (4) Men's interests in maintaining control over women continued to shape public policy after the transition to black majority rule in 1980 partly because a patriarchal mode of production continued to dominate subsistence agricultural production. In the current historical context patriarchal interests pose a major obstacle to socialist reforms and threaten the prospects for economic growth. Bibliogr., notes. |