About the Author: Sharon Hudson-Dean serves as Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe.

It’s not often we get to witness barriers being broken first-hand — there is a special kind of energy in the air when you do. The sort of vibe that says, this feels like a game-changing event. That was the atmosphere at Harare’s Quill Club (press club) on Thursday, March 15, during its first-ever Ladies Night. Not only did the evening bring in more women at one time than the male-dominated institution has probably ever seen (over half of the 60 guests), but it also featured an intense, on-the-record panel discussion of gender equity, or the lack thereof, in Zimbabwean media.

The first panelist gave a brief history of the Quill Club and set the stage for how urgent it is to break down the anti-women discriminatory practices now in place in Zimbabwe’s media.… more »