Continuity and Change: Performing Gender in Rural Tanzania

About:

This mixed methods research used methods such as focus groups, semi-structured interviews and sociology to attain findings.

In total, the article draws on the perspectives of 144 women and 144 men living in four rural communities.

In each community, research teams conducted fifteen research activities, all but one disaggregated by gender. These included six focus group discussions (FGDs) with women and men in low- and middle-income categories (aged 25 to 50), and with young women and men (aged 14 to 24).

Also, four semi-structured life-story interviews (two with women and two with men), and four semi-structured individual interviews with recognised women and men agricultural innovators, as well as a community profile (with both genders) were conducted.

Study participants reflected on a wide variety of issues, including gender norms and household and agricultural roles; gender norms surrounding household bargaining over livelihoods and assets; labor market trends and gender dimensions; women’s physical mobility and gender norms shaping access to economic opportunities and household bargaining.

But important to note - The study is based on purposive maximum diversity sampling. In statistical terms, therefore, the findings cannot be generalised.

In our methodology, ethnic community and religious affiliation were noted but did not in themselves form selection criteria and thus comparative analysis on these data points was not possible.