Introduction Zimbabwe’s economy is heavily reliant on agriculture and natural resources, yet, constrained by high unemployment. As a result, the informal sector constitutes a vital source of employment and livelihoods for millions of Zimbabweans today. Street vending is a dominant subsection of the informal sector, with women making up over two- thirds of its participants. While this statistical dominance may be interpreted as reflecting women’s equality in the informal sector, the persistence of women’s marginalization in street vending suggests otherwise. Although feminists have invested time in ensuring women’s rights, there is a disconnect between the concerns of female street vendors and feminist work. Nevertheless, feminism as an ideology affirms the right of every woman to gender justice and equity. Based on this understanding, we explore how feminists and female street vendors can collaborate to develop strategies that promote gender equity in the informal economy enabling women to live and work with dignity. First, we explore women street vendors’ experiences with gender inequity and the strategies they use to overcome the resulting challenges. This helps us establish how these experiences can inform feminist strategies to promote gender equity in the sector. Based on the perspectives of female street vendors, we consider how feminists can rethink their engagement to advance gender equity in the informal economy. The connection between feminism and feminist engagement Since the focus of this dialogue is feminist engagement, it is important to first understand the meanings of feminism and feminist engagement to differentiate between them. Magezis(1996) defines feminism as“a broad social movement that encompasses various perspectives advocating for women’s rights.” However, other scholars view feminism as an ideology, theory, philosophy, or way of thinking that aims to transform oppressive relations between men and women based on women’s perspective. Feminism is the framework and ideology, while feminist engagement is how we implement and advance it in practical and political ways. Feminist engagement is the movement, work, or action that feminists take to eradicate oppressive relations. The women’s movement in Zimbabwe from 1980 to the present reflects feminist engagement; that is, acting on feminist values and convictions to bring about change. Thus, feminist engagement moves beyond abstract convic- tions by driving action for meaningful social change. This paper therefore locates vendor’s struggles within feminist engagement. Women street vendors experiences of gender inequity in urban zimbabwe In urban Zimbabwe, women constitute a two-thirds major­ity of street vendors, i yet they remain vulnerable to gender injustices in this subsection of the informal sector. While men also face hardships, Zimbabwean women have always been more susceptible to such inequities. ii The extent of their vulnerability is reflected in their overrepresentation in less lucrative trades, their meagre incomes, and their lack of access to credit, proper vending infrastructure, and personal safety, given their exposure to various forms of violence. Women’s overrepresentation in less lucrative trades dates back to the 1980s iii . They generally have been confined to low end ventures such as selling clothes and perishable food retailing. In contrast, more men deal in high income products, including electrical appliances. Due to long existing patriarchal structures, many women in Harare stated that they are not‘allowed’ by males to sell goods that are higher in hierarchy, for example, groceries and technology gadgets iv . Interviews in Harare revealed that some men do all they can to keep women out of lucrative“male trades”, from approaching customers to down bidding or speaking negatively against female competitors. Men have consequently earned higher incomes, for instance, 300 to 1200 USD a month between 2014 and 2023, while women earned a monthly average of US$100 and below after subtracting all costs v . This was below the December 2016 ZIMSTATS National Poverty Datum Line(PDL) for a family of five, pegged at US$475 and the same applies today. Feminism and the Informal Sector 1