The low recruitment of female workers at FOCUS Zimbabwe

Abstract

This study explored the reasons for the low intake of female workers at FOCUS Zimbabwe and gave recommendations to address the anomaly. Women constitute a more significant population percentage in the Christian circles, but their full-time ministry participation remains low. Most of the research done so far tends to emphasise leadership or power relations of women towards the ministry without probing or unleashing why few females are recruited. This explains why they are few female workers in FOCUS Zimbabwe. The following objectives guided the research; to examine how the patriarchal culture has a bias on women recruitment, evaluate how the hermeneutic differences cause women not to be recruited and suggest possible solutions to mitigate the problems of gender imbalance in recruitment. The study adopted the qualitative approach to conduct the research using questionnaires and interviews as primary research instruments. The data processing and analysis were done using google form and excel sheet and was presented thematically. A total of 21 out of 27 expected responses were received, thus attaining about 78 per cent response rate. This study identified several reasons behind the low female staff recruitment at FOCUS: hermeneutic differences, patriarchal culture, and power relations. In addition to the highlighted factors, there was an indication that the leadership was not intentionally recruiting women. The study also established that the involvement and interest of women in FOCUS were low because of FOCUS's long working hours versus the low financial support. Based on the findings, the study made several recommendations: FOCUS leadership needs to be more intentional and radical in addressing the gender imbalance within the organisation, FOCUS leadership should have a responsibility to do more external awareness with a focus to educate their stakeholders that it is biblically permissible for women to serve with FOCUS. The sharp hermeneutic differences among theologians make the body of Christ disagree with women taking leadership roles in the church. However, they agree that women can do what FOCUS is doing: evangelism, discipleship training, writing articles, counselling, etcetera.