RESUMO
PIP: This article considers whether women's importance to the success of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle that took place from 1966-80 resulted in the fulfillment of the promises of the male resistance leadership to replace traditional patriarchal subjugation with equality. The introduction notes that the answer to this is complex because actions taken that were beneficial to women were taken for gender-neutral reasons and, therefore, left the patriarchy intact. Women have also gained because their participation in the struggle helped them learn to question assumptions and understand basic human rights, but the goals of the liberation struggle have not been realized for women. The article continues to apply a human rights perspective to an examination of Zimbabwean women's legal status, representation in government, empowerment through education, economic participation, and access to health and welfare. The conclusion of the article points out that not only have women not achieved full human rights in Zimbabwe, there have also been disturbing examples of a backlash against female emancipation including 1) the government-authorized arrests of women who happened to be walking around at night in September 1983, 2) calls for the repeal of laws beneficial to women, and 3) incidences when female university students were publicly stripped of their modern garb (this led to a 1998 protest by more than 100 women).^ieng