Page 1 of 15

329

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 3

Publication Date: March 25, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.83.9609.

Mutukwa, M. T., & Tanyanyiwa, S. (2021). De-Stereotyping Informal Sector Gendered Division of Work: A Case of Magaba Home

Industry, Harare, Zimbabwe. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(3) 329-343.

De-Stereotyping Informal Sector Gendered Division of Work: A Case

of Magaba Home Industry, Harare, Zimbabwe

Maxwell Tawanda Mutukwa

Head of Education for Sustainable Development

African Youth Initiative on Climate Change Zimbabwe

Dr. Shadreck Tanyanyiwa

Senior Lecturer, Department of Development Studies

North West University, Mafikeng Campus

North West Province South Africa

ABSTRACT

The informal sector is gradually becoming the sole source of income

for millions of people around the world. Yet, there exists grossly

asymmetric relationships between men and women in accessing

functional prerequisites to operate and survive in the industry.

Cultural and socially constructed consciousness within the industry,

has created gendered division of work. Therefore, this study explored

how to de-stereotype gendered division of work in the informal sector,

focusing on Magaba Home Industries in Harare, Zimbabwe. This

qualitative study concludes that human capital development

accompanied with social and financial capital is significant in

improving capacities of both women and men in productive informal

work. The study recommends an ideological shift from perceived

oriented line of work based on gender to mainstreaming equality of

achievement based on mobile societies that foster upward social

mobility thus bridging the gendered skills gap.

Keywords: informal sector, human capital development, de-stereotyping,

gendered division of work, skills mainstreaming.

INTRODUCTION

The term informal sector also known as the hidden economy, underground economy or shadow

economy is used to describe a heterogeneous group of economic arrangements that are not

subjected to regulation by the state (Medina & Schneider, 2018). The usage of the term can be

traced to the 1970s when population growth of many cities in developing countries was

accompanied by increasing unemployment and low incomes resulting in the concept of informal

sector. The industry is synonymous with unregulated economic activities of the urban poor who

hide from official authorities for monetary, regulatory, and institutional reasons. Informal

operators avoid paying taxes and all social security contributions; regulatory reasons include

avoiding governmental bureaucracy or the burden of regulatory framework, while institutional

reasons include corruption, the quality of political institutions and weak rule of law (Medina &

Schneider, 2018).

Page 2 of 15

330

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 3, March-2021

The informal sector is characterised broadly as consisting of units engaged in the production of

goods or services operating typically at a low level of organisation, with little or no division

between labour and capital as factors of production are on a small scale (Harriss-White & Sinha,

2007). In the 21st Century, the informal sector has become critical sole source of livelihood for

millions of people in developing countries, who fail to provide for their families through formal

means.

The informal sector is presided by the patriarchal nature of societies that structure means and

mode of production to suit the manipulative system. Activities within the informal sector have

been ascribed in a stereotypical manner segregating men from women’s work. The informal

activities include hawking, market trade, craftsmanship, manufacturing and repairs (Kinyanjui,

2014; Chirau, 2012; Gumbo, 2013). The gendered division of labour in the informal sector

relegates women to petty production activities that relate to cooked food activities, vendors of all

sorts of products mostly vegetables, fruits, cigarettes, air-time, clothes, shoes, jewellery and fizzy

drinks. With no access to institutional credit to boost their trade, most informal traders, especially

petty traders rely on day-to-day income for survival. The plight of women informal traders is

compounded by limited access to critical resources such as education, land, technology and credit,

which are some of the necessary ingredients for business growth.

Differential access to forms of capital reinforce already established inequalities between men and

women and their informal sector activities. These forms of capital include financial, social and

human which influence the structural agency dichotomy where men and women become mere

pawns in the hands of a system that discriminates certain informal sector activities as male or

female oriented based on access to capital. Banks are disinclined to offer loans to informal

operators, because of lack collateral and business management skills. As a result, women resort to

other informal funding systems. In Zimbabwe and elsewhere, women regularly engage in a form of

moneylending called ma-round (rotational money groups), entailing a rotation whereby particular

members of the group, on a monthly basis, receive a substantial share of the group’s funds (Chirau,

2012). This system, called stokvels in South Africa, plays a considerable social role in bringing

about a degree of community cooperation (Gwagwa, 1998). The deprivation to access credit

facilities regularly leads to limited diversification of livelihood activities and an increased

dependency on one livelihood strategy for informal traders especially, women, thus increasing the

chances of vulnerability during periods of economic stress and shocks (Chirau, 2012).

Besides lack of access to financial products, cultural norms pertaining to girl-child education limit

the enrolment of girls in both primary and secondary education resulting in high female illiteracy

(Chirau, 2012). Statistics reveal that of the females who are in informal employment in Zimbabwe,

91 percent are unskilled whilst for males in informal employment, 81 percent are unskilled. The

shortage of skills among young Zimbabweans exists despite expansion of the educational and

skills training systems at all levels (Mambo, 2010). This shortage of skills was exacerbated by

systematic brain drain following the collapse of the economy from late 1990s. Therefore, skills

mainstreaming is a key enabler and a stepping stone in promoting demand driven and market

oriented technical and vocational training that can be leveraged to improve productive capacities

of particularly women and men. The African Union (AU) (2007) document on Technical and

Vocational Education and Training (TVET) states that technical training is important for national

development because it promotes skills acquisition through competency based training. However,

Page 3 of 15

Mutukwa, M. T., & Tanyanyiwa, S. (2021). De-Stereotyping Informal Sector Gendered Division of Work: A Case of Magaba Home Industry, Harare,

Zimbabwe. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(3) 329-343.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.83.9609 331

the way patriarchal society is structured, justifies discrimination and marginalisation of women in

attaining productive hands on technical and vocational capacities to take up lucrative income

generating activities in the informal sector (Yap et al., 2018). Socially constructed consciousness

distorts reality and gives a false picture of society that limits women’s potential in productive

hands-on work that can improve economic value and eventually their operating spaces (Gergen,

2009).

Given this background, the study sought to attempt to bridge the gendered nature of the informal

sector and de-stereotype such work activities by fostering human capital development. The

objectives of the study were to investigate what contributes to the gendered division of work

between men and women; analyse human capital development towards de-stereotyping gendered

division of work in the informal sector; and assess how possession of human capital skills impact

on income differences between skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled men and women operating at

Magaba Home Industry.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The study was guided first by the human capital theory, which states that human capital consists

of the accumulation of all prior investments in education, on-the-job training, health, migration,

and other factors that increase individual productivity and, therefore, earnings (Pasour, 2013).

Human capital is an investment for the future, more training leads to better work skills and

training compensate for skills shortage. The human capital perspective argues that the issue of

female labour force participation is reducible to the fact that the family sends out first a member

possessing the greatest marketable skills and less-skilled members are sent as needed (Stitchter,

1992). Given the gendered mode of production in a patriarchal society, this theory is responsive to

the need for human capital development as an engine for demand driven and market oriented

skills for the informal sector without discrimination based on gender.

Second, the study was anchored on dualist, legalist, structuralist and feminist perspectives that

substantiating gendered division of work and growth of the informal sector. The dualist

perspective takes a positive view of the sector emphasising potential to create employment

opportunities in developing countries (Wamuthenya, 2009). This perception of economic dualism

theorises that those unable to find work in the formal sector fashioned their own work in the

informal sector. The dualist perspective informs the study to de-stereotype such gendered

pejorative implications.

The feminist perspective has synergies with the core premise of this study particularly the

patriarchal connotations that have justified women’s position and informal sector activities as just

and fair. The feminist perspective principally stress women’s participation in productive activities

and the obstacles they face in earning decent incomes (Peterson & Lewis, 1999). These hurdles

include socially defined limits to women’s mobility and discrimination by formal sources of credit

restraining their microenterprise ventures. The approach castigates the patriarchal nature of most

societies that link women’s opportunities and labour with low opportunity cost.

The structuralist perspective looks at the vulnerability of the informal sector. The structuralist

view believes that the informal sector resulted from an incomplete transition to advanced

capitalism (Wamuthenya, 2009). The sector employs those who are the most socially and