- Brief created: 2021
- Tanzania
Continuity and Change: Performing Gender in Rural Tanzania
Based on:
Journal Article (2020) ↗
Despite cultural and economic limitations, gender is continually being re-enacted and reproduced in Tanzania, and spaces are emerging for women and men to renegotiate gender.
Brief by:
Even though Tanzanian law is among the most progressive in Africa, the implementation of these laws has not always been effective. Progressive policies can translate rapidly into women’s economic and other forms of empowerment, but this has not always happened in reality.
During our fieldwork, we collected the perspectives of 144 women and 144 men in four rural communities in different regions of Tanzania in order to understand how they perceive gender equality, how these perceptions relate to women’s decision-making and incomes, women as homemakers, and women’s control over assets.
Key findings
Women are often sanctioned with physical violence in order to adhere to gender norms.
In this paper we show how men and women continuously perform, reproduce, and renegotiate gender as part of everyday life as they seek to secure their personal well-being in a context of limited cultural and economic options.
Proposed action
A gender equality narrative in national policy and local discourse does not always translate into practice
Gender is non-natural, but created and perpetuated through its continuous performance
In order to change gender norms in agriculture, practitioners need to critically think about how gender norms develop and stay in place
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Continuity and Change: Performing Gender in Rural Tanzania
Cite this brief: Badstue, Lone. 'Continuity and Change: Performing Gender in Rural Tanzania'. Acume. https://www.acume.org/r/continuity-and-change-performing-gender-in-rural-tanzania/
Brief created by: Dr Lone Badstue | Year brief made: 2021
Original research:
- C. R. F., Badstue, L., & et al., ‘Continuity and Change: Performing Gender in Rural Tanzania’ (pp. 1–16) https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2020.1790534. – https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/00220388.2020.1790534
Research brief:
Despite cultural and economic limitations, gender is continually being re-enacted and reproduced in Tanzania, and spaces are emerging for women and men to renegotiate gender.
Even though Tanzanian law is among the most progressive in Africa, the implementation of these laws has not always been effective. Progressive policies can translate rapidly into women’s economic and other forms of empowerment, but this has not always happened in reality.
During our fieldwork, we collected the perspectives of 144 women and 144 men in four rural communities in different regions of Tanzania in order to understand how they perceive gender equality, how these perceptions relate to women’s decision-making and incomes, women as homemakers, and women’s control over assets.
Findings:
Women are often sanctioned with physical violence in order to adhere to gender norms.
In this paper we show how men and women continuously perform, reproduce, and renegotiate gender as part of everyday life as they seek to secure their personal well-being in a context of limited cultural and economic options.
Advice:
A gender equality narrative in national policy and local discourse does not always translate into practice
Gender is non-natural, but created and perpetuated through its continuous performance
In order to change gender norms in agriculture, practitioners need to critically think about how gender norms develop and stay in place