Women in Tanzania
Maasai women in Tanzania
General Statistics
Maternal mortality (per 100,000)524 (2017)
Women in parliament36.7% (2020)
Women in labour force81.1
Gender Inequality Index[1]
Value0.560 (2021)
Rank146th out of 191
Global Gender Gap Index[2]
Value0.719 (2022)
Rank64th out of 146

Although the roles, livelihoods, and safety of women in Tanzania have improved significantly since the 20th century, the nation remains a strongly patriarchal society in which women face high rates of gendered violence[3] and barriers to full legal rights and education.[4][5][6][7]

Gender roles

Status in the society starts from birth in Tanzania and is highly gendered. Female babies, born in Tanzinia, are given a title, based on gender, instantly subjecting them to their social identity. Female's are hheekuuso'oo "child who will fetch water", while males are called hee sla/a or muk sla/a "child of the bush".The female gender is highly connected to motherhood in this culture and thus women stayed close to the household to avoid pollution climates and remain fertile. [8]

In the 80s, Women were aware that they performed more tasks in their village and overall did more work than their male counterparts. In 2006, a local Tanzanian organization reiterated this belief with another survey. Although both boys and girls did work on the farms side by side, girls would cook, fetch water and continue household chores while boys would rest for the day and wait for food. [9]

Domestic differences

Traditionally, as young girls become wives, they get a portion of land from their husbands for the food production. On top of all the household duties, caring for the children as well as the elderly the wives did all the weeding, planting and harvesting, while men only are needed to complete the heavy lifting, but weren't needed continuously. Anytime the husband leaves the home for an extended period of time to look for work, the wife had the full responsibility of upkeep of the crops. The only economic autonomy woman were entitled to is selling any surplus of crops to the markets. But regardless, land was controlled almost completely by the men. [10]

The gendered violence women experience stems from the origins of the dynamic in marriage. Traditionally, woman are victims of being perceived as objects, especially with the popularity of polygamy and trading women for goods and money, thus leaving 21% of the women having said they have experienced physical violence, been threatened to experience physical violence , or forced into sexual intercourse by their partner. Furthermore, the patriarchy that continues to exists in Tanzania limits the ability for women to escape these abusive partnerships. [11]

The nation's 1977 constitution guarantees women equal protection under the law and prohibits discrimination based on gender.[12][13]

The 1971 Law of Marriage Act set the legal age for marriage at 15 for girls and 18 for boys.[14] In 2016, a case to raise the legal age for girls to 18 was petitioned by Rebeca Gyumi, the founder and executive director of the msichana initiative, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for the rights of women and girls and the right to education.[15] The high court directed the Tanzanian government to raise the legal age to 18 for girls and to align the legal age for both genders.[16] This decision was appealed by the Tanzanian government but in 2019 the court upheld its prior ruling.[17] Tanzania does not maintain official statistics on child marriage, but human rights organizations estimate that Tanzania still has one of the highest rates of child marriages worldwide.[18][19]

The Tanzanian Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act explicitly excludes marital rape as a criminal offence.[20]

In 1985, Tanzania was one of the first countries to establish a women's quota for parliament and the number of reserved-seats and female members of parliament has steadily increased since.[21][22] Female members of parliament are elected indirectly: political parties provide a list with their female candidates to the Electoral Commission before the elections and the distribution of the reserved-seats is carried out proportionally between all parties that gain more than 5% of the popular vote.This quota-system was not intended to be established permanently and female politicians can switch from a reserved-seat to a constituency seat in subsequent elections.[22] In all the past elections however, the number of women gaining a constituency seat has been significantly lower than the number of women who gained a reserved-seat.[21][23]

Since 19 March 2021, Samia Suluhu Hassan is the first female President of Tanzania.

See also

Human rights in Tanzania

References

  1. ↑ "Human Development Report 2021/2022" (PDF). HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  2. ↑ "Global Gender Gap Report 2022" (PDF). World Economic Forum. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  3. ↑ Vyas, Seema; Jansen, Henrica A. F. M. (2018-11-15). "Unequal power relations and partner violence against women in Tanzania: a cross-sectional analysis". BMC Women's Health. 18 (1): 185. doi:10.1186/s12905-018-0675-0. ISSN 1472-6874. PMC 6238293. PMID 30442127.
  4. ↑ Ratcliffe, Rebecca (2017-06-30). "'After getting pregnant, you are done': no more school for Tanzania's mums-to-be". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  5. ↑ "Tanzania's proposed constitution empowers women to own land". Reuters. 2014-10-08. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  6. ↑ "Human Development Data (1990-2017) | Human Development Reports". hdr.undp.org. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  7. ↑ "Data Explorer". Global Gender Gap Report 2018. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
  8. ↑ Snyder, Katherine (2006). ""Mothers on the March"". Africa Today. 53 (1): 83 – via JSTOR.
  9. ↑ Feinstein, Sheryl; Feinstein, Rachel; Sabrow, Sophia; Feinstein, Shery (2010). "Gender Inequality in the Division of Household Labour in Tanzania". African Sociological Review / Revue Africaine de Sociologie. 14 (2): 98–109. ISSN 1027-4332.
  10. ↑ Mbilinyi, Marjorie (1972). ""The State of Women in Tanzania"". Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines. 6 (2): 372–374 – via JSTOR.
  11. ↑ McCloskey, Laura Ann; Williams, Corrine; Larsen, Ulla (2005-09-01). "Gender Inequality and Intimate Partner Violence Among Women in Moshi, Tanzania". International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 31: 124.
  12. ↑ "The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  13. ↑ "Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania 1977, as amended to 2005". constitutions.unwomen.org. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  14. ↑ "The Law of Marriage Act, 1971" (PDF). 2021-12-04.
  15. ↑ "About – Msichana Initiative". Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  16. ↑ "Msuya, N --- "The analysis of child marriage and thirdparty consent in the case of Rebeca Z. Gyumi v Attorney General Miscellaneous Civil Case no 5 of 2016 Tanzania High Court at Dar es Salaam" [2019] DEJURE 14". www.saflii.org. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  17. ↑ "Victory Against Child Marriage in Tanzania". Human Rights Watch. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  18. ↑ UK, Plan International (2017-12-22). "Child marriage in Tanzania". Medium. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  19. ↑ "What we've learnt from the national survey on child marriage in Tanzania". Girls Not Brides. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  20. ↑ "Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act, 1998" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  21. 1 2 "EISA Tanzania: Women's representation in the National Assembly". www.eisa.org. Retrieved 2021-12-04.
  22. 1 2 Wang, Vibeke; Yoon, Mi Yung (2018). "Switches from quota- to non-quota seats: A comparative study of Tanzania and Uganda". CMI Brief. 2018 (2).
  23. ↑ Yoon, Mi Yung (2008). "Special Seats for Women in the National Legislature: The Case of Tanzania". Africa Today. 55 (1): 61–86. ISSN 0001-9887. JSTOR 27666951.
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