The confinement of women to low-value trades is linked to a lack of access to credit, since they do not meet the criteria for loans from formal or informal financial institutions. A Harare-based spice vendor explained,“I never contemplate seeking a loan from any bank. I don’t own a house or cattle on a plot of land. So, I cannot ask any bank for a loan”. In Gweru, women stated that lenders of‘chimbadzo’(individuals who give loans on exorbitant interest rates) vi readily accept male clients with tangible assets such as tools, bicycles, cars, houses or household property. Usually, women do not qualify because they do not own such property. Time poverty also contributes to the impoverished status of women street vendors. Time poverty is a state in which there is always more to do than time available. It occurs when one is overwhelmed by responsibilities to the extent that there is no time left for self-care and rest. Time poverty is a gendered issue which mostly affects women vii . In urban Zimbabwe, women spend a disproportionately large amount of time on unpaid domestic work and work on the streets. In Bulawayo, vendors emphasise that they are literally raising their children on the streets, as they must impart good values to their children and assist with school assignments while they work. In Harare, most women- except the elderly- come to the market between 10 am and midday, after attending to household chores. Men arrive between 6:30 am and 7 am, taking advantage of the early-morning busyness as people go to work. While men remain in the market until 8 pm, most women leave by 7 pm to prepare supper for their families and complete other tasks during the night, such as doing laundry. Some fresh produce vendors must complete domestic chores at night because, as vendors in both Bulawayo and Harare testified, they wake up at 4 am on restocking days to purchase supplies. This creates time poverty, contributing to poor business performance, consistently low incomes, and poor well-being. Essentially, women face different challenges than men when it comes to street vending. For instance, when faced with raids, men respond swiftly by running off with their goods, unencumbered by childcare or pregnancy. They also resist arrest and the seizure or extortion of their goods. An OECD/ ILO 2019 viii report confirmed that the inability to access childcare upon delivery confines female vendors to the so­called‘flexible’ sections of street vending, which offer lower pay and a higher risk of accidents. While there is no readily available record of fatal consequences associated with male vendors, there are various accounts of fatalities among female vendors during raids. For example, during a raid in Harare in December 2023, police chased a vendor carrying a baby on her back and goods in her hands. The child fell and was crushed by a municipal car ix . A similar incident occurred in Masvingo Central Business District(CBD) in 2014, when a female street vendor fled the police with her baby on her back. She collapsed, but instead of offering her assistance, the police seized her goods and left. The woman later died x . The above example also shows that women experience the challenges of street vending in different ways. In Harare, hearing impaired, the elderly, pregnant women and mothers with babies or toddlers are the most vulnerable. Mothers’ attention is divided between their customers, their children and avoiding the police. Women between 58 and 65 find it hard to carry heavy loads and run through traffic during raids. In Harare, it is even harder for people with hearing and speech impairments because their eyes are also their ears. They use their eyes to attend to their babies, communicate with customers, while watching out for the police. 2