Gender Sensitisation in the Zambian Copperbelt

This paper examines gender sensitisation in Kitwe, Zambia. My evidence, derived from a year’s ethnographic research, suggests that gender sensitisation is most effective when participants are also exposed to flexibility of gender divisions of labour. Seeing a critical mass of women performing socially valued roles appears to be interpreted as validation of abstract messages of equality. Such synergy is most commonly enabled when gender sensitisation is participatory. By sharing experiences of flexibility in gender divisions of labour, group discussants often come to publicly question widely-shared assumptions about men and women’s differing competence and status. Hearing others express support for gender equality also shifts presumptions about cultural expectations.