One of Zimbabwe’s most accomplished women politicians, Joice Mujuru, has held positions of member of parliament, minister and vice-president of the country. However, perceptions about her power to influence decisions in a context characterised by dominant ‘Big men’ have led to her elite status being the subject of debate among feminists, political activists and other women politicians. Some of her critics viewed her political elite status as dependent on the influence of her husband, the late Solomon Mujuru, who was considered one of the most powerful men in Zimbabwean politics and was often referred to as the kingmaker. Joice Mujuru’s loss of political power only a few years after her husband’s death seems to support this view. For some feminists, Joice Mujuru represented mere patriarchal interests. She was sometimes labelled part of ‘window-dressing’ designed by male elites who wished to give the misleading impression that they included women in power centres. When speaking about her experience as a politician, Joice Mujuru indicates that many factors limited her ability to influence decisions. These factors include her military training, which made her less inclined to challenge authority; her age and cultural background, which made her less inclined to challenge her elders; characters of her seniors who were not willing to take advice from their subordinates; her gender and her reluctance to cause ‘misunderstandings’ by being seen as too ambitious in a context characterised by long tenures and limited circulation of top-level political leaders. In this paper, I trace the various debates and ideas surrounding Joice Mujuru’s position in Zimbabwean politics by looking at history books and other scholarly sources, news media, documentaries, biographical films, published biographies, and recorded interviews to demonstrate the need for a sociometric elite theory that takes into account the positions of women in African politics. Unlike their male counterparts, the ‘Big men’ who are often simultaneously politicians, community leaders, and businessmen, women lack the resources to distribute and exchange for political support and secure and maintain their influence. Combinations of positional, decisional and reputational research methods and generally accepted definitions of political elites that consider individuals’ and groups’ disproportionate power to affect national political outcomes on a continuing basis may not be adequate to fully capture the experiences of women political elites in Africa because of elite women’s complex relationships with dominant masculine political networks and non-elites. Joice Mujuru, whose political legitimacy is primarily derived from her participation in Zimbabwe’s anti-colonial struggle, exemplifies the experiences of many African women in politics who often gain access to political positions during moments of transition, instability, political uncertainty, or crisis but find themselves being pushed to the margins of power in times of relative stability or treated as patronage networks or beneficiaries of state policies rather than agents in constructing new states.
