“Sex is sex, marriage is marriage”: infidelity amongst married women in Shamva, Zimbabwe

Many African societies adhere to a strong patriarchal norm as regards sexual relations, one that is unforgiving of female infidelity yet tolerates men’s extramarital affairs and even incorporates these into culture. This study reveals that, contrary to traditional assumptions defining women as a passive and powerless second sex, married women in a specific African township redefine their sexuality in ways that defy accepted cultural norms. In-depth, qualitative interviews with a sample of six Zimbabwean women — all of whom were involved in extramarital affairs at the time of the study — suggest that these women devised their own means of resistance to defy socially accepted norms and values and to become active sexual actors outside the marital domain. Some of the women also gain much-needed self-esteem from their extramarital affairs in that they experience these relationships as more egalitarian than the situations prevailing within their marriages.