The Gendering of Empowerment for Christian Women in Kabwe, Zambia: A Study of Selected Church Denominations

Abstract

This article investigates the gendering of empowerment for Christian women in selected Church denominations of Kabwe town in Zambia. Christian women have been disproportionately vulnerable to misrepresentation when it comes to the allocation of leadership roles in the church and other positions of influence in society. In communities outside church circles, this uneven vulnerability between women and men is evident in the perceptions and analyses of the means of surviving the socio-economic hurdles because of differences in gendered norms, divisions of labour, resource access and power relations. In Christianity, the challenges seem to be exacerbated by the religion’s belief in the patriarchal set-up which seems to place the female gender in a subordinate position in society.  To explore this apparent paradox, the study drew upon a sample of 32 participants; 20 females and 12 males, purposively selected from 4 Christian church denominations within the Kabwe Urban in Zambia. These were subjected to interviews, which served as the foundation for primary data collection. The recorded transcripts of the interviews were analysed thematically for participants’ perceptions of the management of socio-economic empowerment among Christian women. The primeval sexual equality, equality distorted by ‘the fall’, the need to break gender norms, the need for women to prove themselves worthy and the need to support women were established as emerging themes from the study. The study recommended the need for women to recognise their potential and prove themselves worthy; and the need to enforce affirmative actions to help establish the rights of women.