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View from the Field: Pinimidzai Sithole

PINIMIDZAI

SITHOLE

A Male Champion who preaches

and practices gender equality

Pinimidzai Sithole, known as Pinnie, had an “aha” moment about An accidental career in the water sector
gender equality as an undergraduate sociology student at the
University of Zimbabwe. It was pure serendipity that Sithole, who received his master’s
degree in sociology and social anthropology, ended up working
Taking a course on gender and development in the late 1990s on water issues. Because of his strong research skills, Sithole
from renowned Zimbabwean feminist and sociologist Rudo was introduced to an American professor at the University of
Gaidzanwa, Sithole says he realized that patriarchal attitudes Zimbabwe’s Center for Applied Social Sciences who was deeply
were ubiquitous during his childhood in the rural eastern involved in water sector reforms in Zimbabwe.
highlands of Zimbabwe.
Before long, Sithole found himself immersed in the professor’s
“I grew up accepting as normal that it’s your sisters who are work as a research assistant. “That’s when I started this keen
responsible for cooking for you, for fetching water for you, interest in the water sector,” he says.

for gathering firewood for you,” he says. “As a boy, your only
responsibility was looking after the livestock. And you are He never looked back.
socialized to think about STEM (science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics) professions, while your sisters are nudged to
be nurses and teachers.”

“I realized that we should have fairly distributed the tasks
whether you are a boy or a girl,” says Sithole, 49. “After that class,
I started challenging the pervasive patriarchy and calling myself
a feminist ally. Since then, I have been preaching and practicing
it.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Sithole gravitated toward
gender issues during his career or that he
joined CIWA’s Male Champions for Women’s
Empowerment initiative in 2024—or
that he and his wife are raising their
two children in Pretoria with more
progressive gender norms.

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