Women in Tanzania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.jpg) Maasai women in Tanzania | |
| General statistics | |
|---|---|
| Maternal mortality (per 100,000) | 524 (2017) |
| Women in parliament | 36.7% (2020) |
| Women in labour force | 81.1 |
| Gender Inequality Index[1] | |
| Value | 0.560 (2021) |
| Rank | 146th out of 191 |
| Global Gender Gap Index[2] | |
| Value | 0.719 (2022) |
| Rank | 64th out of 146 |
Roles, livelihoods, and the safety of women in Tanzania have improved significantly since the 20th century, made evident by the seating of Samia Suluhu Hassan – their first female president. Though throwbacks to a once strongly patriarchal society remain (particularly in regard to certain marital laws that favour Islamic and Christian traditions), modernised locals – like Dar es Salaam and Arusha – tell a story of upward mobility. Long-term visitors, from more liberal territories, will notice a surprising number of female business owners, middle managers and even security guards. Relatively high rates of gendered violence,[3] as well as barriers to full legal rights and education, leave a lot of room for improvement but it can no longer be said that these issues characterise the average woman's experience in Tanzania.[4][5][6][7]
Status in Tanzanian society starts from birth and is highly gendered. Female babies 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 logic behind this tradition is that the female rite of passage is motherhood, therefore women must stay close to their household to avoid polluted climates and remain fertile.[8]
However, in the 80s, women started to express destain for the weighting of tasks in their village – observing that they did more work than male villagers. In 2006, a local Tanzanian organization reiterated this belief with a survey. It was found that although both boys and girls did work on the farms side by side, girls would also 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 and the elderly, the wives did all the weeding, planting and harvesting, while men were only needed to complete the heavy lifting. Anytime the husband leaves the home for an extended period of time to look for work, the wife had the full responsibility of up-keeping the crops. Despite this, land was controlled almost entirely by the men and women had their economic autonomy limited to the selling of surplus crops.[10]
The gendered violence women experience stems from the origins of the dynamic in marriage. With the popularity of polygamy and the trading women for goods and money (in the most rural parts of the country), they were perceived as objects. This culture left 21% of women claiming to have either experienced physical violence or threats of such acts – including sexual assault (usually at the hands of their spouse). Unfortunately, some of the laws that exist in Tanzania limit the ability for women to escape these abusive marriages.[11]
