76 Zvobgo and Dziva/African Women’s Rights Protocol in Zimbabwe are in poverty.82 With limited funding and some forms of support from government and political parties, the majority of poor women cannot effectively participate in electoral processes including by attending meetings and putting themselves forward as candidates in party and national elections. Indeed, contemporary politics and decision-making processes have been increasingly commercialised beyond the reach of the poor. Aspiring women candidates are in need of political funding to roll out effective campaigns, and to provide for the needs of campaigning aides and agents. As inequality, exclusion and dependency limit the political participation of poor women, better off women and those with wellresourced husbands and relatives are consequently financially supported to contest as candidates. Poverty further limits the active participation of adult women in political activities. Women from poverty stricken families often find it beyond their capacity to attend political gatherings and stand in long voting queues. As Makumbe shows, active participation is often cumbersome for poor women in that attending meetings, voting and informing oneself about issues that affect one’s community, and even voting itself require a lot of time. 83 A study conducted by Wordofa in Ethiopia revealed how poor women shun community meetings and voting processes as they find these to be ‘a time consuming and tedious task that does not do much for them’. 84 Similarly, poor women in Zimbabwe tend to devote their energy to food and income generating activities such as working in fields, vending, and mineral panning instead of participating in public life.85 Poverty can also manifest through limited education. Limited education further reduces self-esteem and breeds an inferiority complex, resulting in many women shunning the public sphere. There is also a tendency by the electorate to vote for, and by political leaders to appoint financially privileged and educated people in society. Thus, limited education comes with resentment and the exclusion of women from the public sphere. Women’s participation in politics and decision-making institutions is also affected by strenuous processes undertaken to appoint or select them. Women’s equal representation in elected positions continues to be affected by the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system in Zimbabwe. The plurality-majority, FPTP or ‘winner takes all’ electoral system entails that the candidate with the highest number of votes wins even if the winner has no absolute majority.86 The disadvantage with 82 ZimStats & ICF International (n 81 above). J Makumbe Participatory development (University of Zimbabwe Publications: Harare 1996). 84 D Wordofa ‘Internalizing and diffusing the PRA approach: the case of Ethiopia’ in J Blackburn & J Holland (eds) Who changes? institutionalizing participation in development (1998) 16. 85 Dziva et al (n 14 above). 86 RE Matland ‘Enhancing women’s political participation: legislative recruitment and electoral systems’ in Women in Parliament: beyond numbers (1998) 68. 83