Gender equality has been one of its major aims for the government of Tanzania since its independence in 1961. The constitution prohibits gender-based discrimination, and the government has ratified various international and regional agreements and conventions dealing with gender issues(1). However, the equality in gender is yet to be achieved in the country.
According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report in 2010, Tanzania is ranked 66th out of the 134 countries surveyed in the study. Although this research has some limitations on its scope, it gives us some insight into the problems surrounding women in Tanzania. It is remarkable that the percentage of enrolment in primary and secondary education and labour force participation does not show much difference among men and women. However, even though they have a same opportunity on the basic level, the research suggests that women is unlikely to have access to higher education or highly skilled employment. The percentage of legislators, senior officials, and managers of women to men is 16 to 83, and the enrolment in tertiary education is 1 to 2. Other ratings such as political empowerment is making a progress, though Ananilea Nkya of Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) told the Citizen (Tanzania's English newspaper) that equal number in representation does not necessarily mean that women gained power(2). Moreover, she criticised the government that the good policies for women empowerment are not being well budgeted and performed(3).
However, underachievement of gender equality cannot simply be attributed to failure of the government policy implementation. Social Institutions and Gender Index by OECD Development Centre suggests the practice of customary and Islamic Sharia laws by judicial authorities results in limitation of legal protection for women(4). For example, despite the government's adoption of the Land Act and Law of Marriage Act which granted Tanzanian women the right to have access to properties, customary and Islamic laws that undermine these rights prevail within the community and thus the ownership rights of women are strictly restricted. This hinders women's opportunity to engage in economic sector. Other practices, such as girls' early marriage, polygamy and female genital mutilation (FGM) are also traditions and are still common in Tanzania. The tradition is deep-rooted and cannot be criticised easily. Even though the government were to call for gender equality, we have to bear in mind that both men and women are closely surrounded by the society which retains various values.
Ayumi Kyoe
(1)International level: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 3 and 5, Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declarations on Gender and Development and the Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (EGA) (UNFPA: http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/tanzania/2009/09/14/1301/gender/ , accessed 02/03/2011)
(2)http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/4-national-news/4997 (accessed 02/03/2011)
(3)http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/tanzania-drops-in-gender-equality-ranks-2010-10-09 (accessed 02/03/2011)
(4)http://genderindex.org/country/tanzania (accessed 02/03/2011)
References
OECD Development Centre (http://www.oecd.org/document/23/0,3746,en_2649_33935_36225815_1_1_1_1,00.html)
UNFPA Gender Equality (http://www.unfpa.org/gender/)
World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report (http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-gender-gap)
