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In rural Zimbabwe, long and unsafe school journeys expose girls to significant risks, including sexual violence, which often curtail their mobility and autonomy. Informed by the concept of sexual geographies, this study examines girls’ school journeys and how they navigate sexual risk in the context of economic volatility, inadequate infrastructure, cultural norms and male power. While previous studies have explored the gendered risks associated with school journeys in the Global South, limited research specifically examines how sexual geographies intersect with rurality, economic deprivation, and heteropatriarchal norms to shape girls’ vulnerabilities during school commutes in Zimbabwe. This study addresses this gap by offering a spatialised analysis of girls’ mobilities, highlighting the nuanced ways in which material conditions and gendered power dynamics constrain their access to education and safety. As such, we draw on a qualitative study involving interviews with two school heads and two focus group discussions with sixteen girls from two secondary schools as they make sense of girls’ navigation of sexual geographies and the gendering of place and space. The findings reveal that gendered domestic responsibilities, fear of violence, and economic deprivation constrain girls’ mobility. Community and institutional measures, while attempting to provide safety, often fail to address gender, sexuality and girls’ risk in the overall landscape, which increases their vulnerabilities. The need for comprehensive interventions concludes the study, focusing on the need for attention to sexual geographies of risk, structural inequalities and masculine power to create safer and more supportive environments for girls.
Ngidi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.