Gender and settler labour markets: The marriage bar in colonial Zimbabwe

This paper discusses the marriage bar in Southern Rhodesia’s labour market. It extends the analysis of the marriage bar. Over and above restrictions to enter the labour market, white women in colonial Zimbabwe, over time, also faced restrictions in terms of their conditions of service once they had entered the market. Married women, for example, were not permitted into permanent employment and, therefore, did not enjoy the benefits associated with fixed establishment. Married white women also had limited opportunities for promotion. Various justifications were proffered to maintain this status quo. However, by and large, hegemonic patriarchies played an important role in entrenching the domestic ideology that fuelled the marriage bar in its various forms. As the paper demonstrates, the marriage bar did not go unchallenged and, in 1971, married women’s restrictions regarding permanent employment were lifted. Of course, these legalistic undertakings were not always immediately reflected in practice partly because perceptions about married white women as primarily mothers and wives lingered on.