User:Cincyliterature/Women in Tanzania

Although the roles, livelihoods, and safety of women in Tanzania have improved significantly since the 20th century, the nation remains a strongly patriarchal society in which women face high rates of gendered violence and barriers to full legal rights and education.

Gender roles
Status in the society starts from birth in Tanzania and is highly gendered. Female babies, born in Tanzinia, 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 female gender is highly connected to motherhood in this culture and thus women stayed close to the household to avoid pollution climates and remain fertile.

In the 80s, Women were aware that they performed more tasks in their village and overall did more work than their male counterparts. In 2006, a local Tanzanian organization reiterated this belief with another survey. Although both boys and girls did work on the farms side by side, girls would cook, fetch water and continue household chores while boys would rest for the day and wait for food.

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 as well as the elderly the wives did all the weeding, planting and harvesting, while men only are needed to complete the heavy lifting, but weren't needed continuously. Anytime the husband leaves the home for an extended period of time to look for work, the wife had the full responsibility of upkeep of the crops. The only economic autonomy woman were entitled to is selling any surplus of crops to the markets. But regardless, land was controlled almost completely by the men.

The gendered violence women experience stems from the origins of the dynamic in marriage. Traditionally, woman are victims of being perceived as objects, especially with the popularity of polygamy and trading women for goods and money, thus leaving 21% of the women having said they have experienced physical violence, been threatened to experience physical violence, or forced into sexual intercourse by their partner. Furthermore, the patriarchy that continues to exists in Tanzania limits the ability for women to escape these abusive partnerships.