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THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN FAMILY AND SOCIETY

1.0       INTRODUCTION

According to the 1988 population census, women constitute nearly 51% of the total population. Tanzanian economy depends heavily on agriculture; about 90% of the able bodied population is engaged in agriculture of which about 75% are women. Yet the status of women is still low, both economically and socially. In spite of the efforts made by the government, it remains a fact that very few women participate in decision making.   

Traditionally the role of women in Tanzania has been law compared to men. Women were not expected to influence the decision-making process from the domestic level to national level. In the family, altitudes which consider men as heads of the households exist. These altitudes rigidly based on patriarchal structures, which limits women voices from influencing allocation of women resources.

The situation is gradually changing, but there is still a long way to go especially in rural areas. Below we will discuss few areas on the situation.

2.0       CULTURE - TRADITIONAL TASKS FOR WOMEN

Most women in Tanzania have a lower standard of living than men. In most cases, the man is the supreme head of the household in all major decisions. A wife earns respect through her children and, indeed, is not considered to be a fully mature woman until she has given birth to a healthy child. In most ethnic groups, she is recognized by her eldest child's name and called, for example, "Mama Kyaruzi," after her eldest child of the same name.

Women in rural areas tend to get married at young stage of between 16-20 years old, compared to those in towns who get married at around 20-25 years. Those who get married over 30 years are considered so unfortunate, and there has to be a reason for that! It is deemed abnormal for a person not to get married, and family members would try all means possible to make sure that a family member gets married.  Men usually marry when they are over 25 years old.

In many rural areas of Tanzania, tribal customs advocate a gender division of labor: women and girls take care of the household chores such as cooking and washing, taking care of children, and livestock, and plant and weed the agricultural fields. Men prepare land for cultivation, care for large livestock, market produce, and make the important financial and political decisions for the family. As girls and women throughout the country have gained access to more formal education, however, they are challenging the customary division of labor. Similarly, where conditions of extreme poverty obligate male heads of households to migrate in search of work, women in these communities have taken over some of the hard physical labor.

Among the lower socio-economic strata, with few exceptions, women have a lower standard of living than do men. Generally speaking, boys are valued more than girls. Only women descended from ruling tribal families, successful businesswomen, or women politicians enjoy privileges equal to that of men. Among the formally educated there are conflicts between husbands and wives regarding the appropriate roles and responsibilities of each. When an activity undertaken by a woman becomes successful, her husband or a male relative will try to take control of the activity or the money it has generated, especially in rural areas.

3.0       POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT AND DECISION MAKING

Traditionally the position of women in Tanzania has been low compared to men. Women were not expected to influence the decision-making processes from domestic level to the national level.  In the family attitudes, which consider men as heads of households, exists. These attitudes are rigidly based on patriarchal structures, which limit women voices from influencing allocation of domestic resources.  At national level, the existing attitudes influence the election and appointment of women to high profile positions and hence limit women’s voices from impacting decision making and the planning process.

   

The Government has changed regulations and taken affirmative action to include women in decision making.  The Parliament passed a Bill in 2000 to increase the parliamentary seats. In the local Government councils, women are assured of 33 percent of seats while in the Union Parliament women are assured of 20 percent of the seats.

The Government has planned to increase the participation of women in parliament to 30 percent by the year 2005.In the 2010 elections women were mobilised to contest for both constituency seats and special seats for women within the 30 percent set aside in parliament. Extra efforts were to be made to ensure that as large as possible proportion of women register for the elections both as voters and candidates. Media campaigns and public meetings for awareness creation were part of the strategy to achieve this.

 

The second thrust was on increasing the number of women in decision making positions and this was to be achieved through Government appointments and other public structures. The Cabinet Decision no 23 of 1996 among other issues endorsed for implementation the increase of women in all decision making levels such as Board of Directors, Heads of Institutions, Commissioners and in national delegations. The other strategy was gender mainstreaming the civil service and creation of a database on women and their qualifications for use by appointing authorities.

     

The advent of political pluralism in Tanzania increased  in the political arena in line with the provisions of the constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania as amended from time to time. The constitution recognises women‘s capacity and the right to participate in politics, social and economic life of the country. The right to vote and the right to stand for election are provided equally for men and women. This was practised successfully in the 2010 general elections, as women MPs have increased to 34%. This is a clear indication that there is a conducive environment for women to participate freely and equally with men in politics and decision making in Tanzania.

4.0       ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT AND POVERTY ERADICATION

In Tanzania about 60 percent of women in Tanzania live in absolute poverty.  This is a result of the increasing poverty among the rural and urban population generally, the growing gap between the rich and poor; women and men; and among women themselves.  In the rural sector and the poor urban suburbs, women carry a heavier burden because by tradition, women lack property rights and they also lack adequate knowledge on existing credit facilities.  Due to their low education level, their knowledge and skills on how to manage their work is generally low.  Most of women also depend on poor technology, which consume their time and energy.

 

To overcome this situation, the United Republic of Tanzania committed itself to enhance women’s economic capacity through making credit facilities available to a majority of women. Building and supporting women entrepreneurial skill, improving their management capabilities, increase training and access to technology.

     

NGOs for credit to women have increased since the 4^th World Women Conference in Beijing. A number of NGOs and donor agencies have made serious efforts to advance credit to women at the village level. Women have been trained on credit management in general. These efforts have increased participation of women in income generation projects.

 

On constraint is lack of financial resources for monitoring utilisation of funds. The other constraint is the large number of the credit needy groups which the available funds, cannot suffice. What still has to be done is to strengthen NGOs so that they are able to provide credit to more beneficiaries and also to find ways that NGOs can be self-sustaining.

 

The Government and NGOs still need to conduct training on production of quality products and marketing skills; sensitise women on involvement of women in International Trade Fairs; open showrooms for agricultural produce and manufacturing products at all levels. The Government needs to conduct studies on investment opportunities for women and what the obstacles to credit are; promote the establishment of a women’s bank that will give women investors the required priority in credit. The Government need as well to educate women on available credit facilities; encourage more women to participate in savings schemes; encourage urban women entrepreneur to invest in rural poverty alleviation programmes and; prepare and disseminate credit information for women in the informal sector

           

Since income generating activities increase women’s work, individual and private institutions are encouraged to develop and promote appropriate and affordable technology, that will ease the women’s work load particularly those directed at making domestic and farm labour less strenuous. The other constraint still to be addressed is educating the society about these changes and how women can benefit from these changes. 

 

The major constraint lies in the traditional norms and culture. It is hard to change attitudes in the society. The main thrust is to embark on gender sensitisation to influence change attitude of the society. The constraint is the traditional beliefs that women cannot carry commercial activities. Efforts still need to be intensified so that women have better access to natural resources. It is important that the public be gender sensitised on resources mobilisation, ownership and management so as to eradicate poverty.

5.0       GENDER AND EMPLOYMENT

Women and men have been found to enter the labour force in different ways, and on different terms, not only in Tanzania, but worldwide.  Differences are found between women and men, as well as among different groups of women (rural-urban; rich-poor; educated – none educated) and men.  Certain kinds of work have been stereotyped as being ‘male’ or ‘female’, because of the socialization process on the division of labour which stipulates different roles for men and women.  Most rural women carry water, firewood and farm produce on their heads, take care of children, cook and farm.

 

Gendered assumptions, however, contribute to a process whereby most women are allocated low paying, unskilled or lesser skilled work in both the formal and the informal sectors of the money economy.  The terms upon which women and men compete for employment are set by wider social relations, including cultural, economic and political arenas.  These include the assumption that a woman’s primary commitment is to care for a family at home, in the ‘reproductive’ sphere of life; and that each woman depends on a male provider for cash needs.

 

The skills label itself is usually arbitrary, and culturally defined.  Skills associated with women tend to be undervalued, and defined as unskilled, even when they entail complex actions and thought processes, such as child care, subsistence farming, agro-processing and the like.

6.0       LEGAL CAPACITY

In Tanzania women’s legal and human rights were constrained by inadequate legal literacy among women. The main reason being that the existing legal system does not reach the majority of women who live in rural areas. There is also discriminatory application of statutory laws, inadequate legislative protective mechanism such as protection orders, baring orders and safety orders in the legal system and insensitive investigations and prosecution of cases involving violence against women and children. Like many societies in Africa, customary laws and practices remain discriminatory against women on issues of property inheritance particularly on land, as well as institutionalised violence against women e.g. wife battering, rape, female genital mutilation and the existence, side by side, of a multitude of statutory, religious and customary laws that might be conflicting.

 

To get away with the situation, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania committed itself to improve women’s legal capacity through legal literacy schemes and mass campaigns to educate women and men on women’s human rights.  The objective was to enhance the status of women through increased knowledge of their legal and human rights. The Government also put in place a mechanism within the legal system that intends to protect women and children. This incorporates human rights teaching in school as well as in adult education programmes. Emphasis on para-legal training so as to offer women extra help at their first point of call in issues affecting their legal rights since the existed legal system did not reach many women especially in the rural areas.

 

The Government in collaboration with NGOs has been working to remove discriminatory provisions in existing laws, which do not grant the rights and freedom of women.  The Government planned to redraft inheritance Laws, the Marriage Act and follows up the convention on the rights of the child. The Government is in the process currently establishing a Commission on Human Rights in Tanzania.  The objective of starting this commission was to co-ordinate the strategies for promoting ways of fighting against violation of human rights. A number of NGOs have identified and spoken on several areas where women’s rights are still violated. They have also worked to sensitise the public as well as women issues of gender violence.

 

7.0       CONCLUSION

Gender mainstreaming and balancing is ought to consider supportive and negative forces in the national social, political and cultural environment. Four positive forces are worth mentioned. First, Tanzania has formed a Legal Reform Commission to investigate and recommend to government oppressive and discriminative laws for deletion or reform. Secondly, Tanzania has in place a government structure, which has a national, regional, local government, ward, and village levels that can facilitate mass gender awareness sensitization. Thirdly, Tanzania currently enjoys a conducive political environment, which recognizes and practices gender equality. Finally, Tanzania is a signatory to the Beijing Platform of Action, and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and an active implementer of the two conventions.

Gradually the status of women is improving, although the situation is still gloomy in rural areas due to cultural practices and poor information dissemination concerning the rights of women. There is a continued increase in the number of women participation in social, cultural, political and economical spheres. With consistent endeavors, the future is bright for the women.