Modernization theory is an internalized process which looks at the social values in a society to determine which of these values promote social progress. It embraces modern thinking and modern values. Modernization theory would therefore be an ideal theory for promoting the empowerment of women and families. Traditional Zimbabwean society has a patriarchal orientation where opportunities are awarded to the male children while girl children are prepared for wifehood, motherhood and the eventual caregivers of the families. Even though times have changed and many girl children are now being educated, there are still many situations where the paradigm of gender inequality is continually upheld. Modernization theory presents an opportunity to change mindsets and ensure that the girl child is given an opportunity to be educated and to make choices in her life. Furthermore, modernization theory tends to give an overview on the problems back in the industrialization of poor countries, including Zimbabwe, and their way of finding solutions. Because of the involvement on the growth stages, there is a significant evolution and development of the society. Women, as an example, plays a complex role within an ordinary household, as a daughter, as a wife, as a mother, and even as workers. Various studies had been created bearing the theme of empowering the woman within a society in order to contribute in the development process of their country. Aside from the physical attributes, woman is beautiful in their own way. Lin Yutang said, “Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother”, which give values of the woman’s role as a guardian of her family. However, in the growing interest of the countries pertaining to development, it is proposed that every woman should have a career outside the home. Bringing the power in the hands of women can contribute for the socioeconomic growth of their families. For such, the support of financial institutions and their influence towards lending and investment is one of the after sought actions. The evolution of the said theory is however, based on the two concepts of social changes - opposing tradition and achievement of a modern society. The modernization of the traditional societies is achieved through rationalizing resource allocation systems and eliminating cultural, institutional, and organizational challenges that prevents the continuous development of the countries, and this is highly influenced from the Western Society (Trujillo, 2002). The impact of the Western world serves as an inspiration for the Third World and then, challenged them to take a step towards the progress. It is suggested that Zimbabwe and its society should be open to new approaches and experience. The mass media plays a very important role in exporting the modernization theory to from Western countries to the Third World. Sometimes even medicine and science play in this transfusion role (Yin, 2008). The macro-structural forces that may include in the urbanization are important in explaining the variety of the social behavior in the society. Broadly, there are many evidences in gender inequality –not only in education but also in work that males are more dominant than females. Problems arise on different sides that indicate the regression in education and such dilemmas involved the income of each family. The women in the society are discriminated through the assumptions that men and women aren’t equal and thus, the women have different responsibilities than men, especially when it comes in housework. In analyzing this kind of behavior from the developed countries, the assumption is not strongly justified because the development created an impact in the lives of the women (Hori, 2007). Conversely, the tradition and cultural values in Modernization and the influence in the society is considered to be dependent variables for the development.
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