The Gendered Fight for Space in Zimbabwe’s Informal Street Vending: A Phenomenological Study of Male and Female Vendors in Masvingo City

Abstract

Street vending has become a huge part of Zimbabwe’s main cities since the turn of the 21st century. Street vending is largely a product of what has been termed Zimbabwe’s crisis years arising from the county’s political and economic challenges. As the country moved deeper into crisis, productive companies closed, forcing people to turn to the informal sector for survival. However, the informal sector is not without its own problems, chief being the fact that it has been inundated by people from all walks of life, making it congested, highly competitive and gendered.This study seeks to bring out the dynamics of the fight for space in the informal sector by female street vendors pitted against aggressive male vendors. Space in the informal sector is a dynamic term that includes the operating space (physical locations) and virtual space (clients) within which informal street vendors operate.This space is being negotiated by different players in the informal sector and more men are entering the sector, often dispossessing women of their traditional opportunities. This study employs a qualitative research based on a phenomenological design to explore men and women vendors’ experiences in the often-rigorous fight for space in Masvingo City. The findings show that male and female vendors in Masvingo fight for both physical space to set up their informal stalls as well as virtual space (which are the customers). Further research needs to be done to develop a theory that explains these two types of space in the informal sector.