More women in the Tanzanian legislature: Do numbers matter?

Abstract

This study examines the changes that followed the rise in the number of female parliamentarians in the Tanzanian legislature and the contextual factors undermining the potential power of the increased number of female MPs. As found in a number of other countries, with more women in parliament, women's interests, concerns and perspective have been better incorporated into parliamentary debates and policy-making in Tanzania. However, the increase in female parliamentary representation challenges the existence of the special-seat system that helped women reach a large minority. The effectiveness of female MPs in Tanzania will improve only with a stronger legislature and a sturdier opposition. If the special-seat system is to remain, a new selection mechanism that allows direct cross-party competition among special-seat candidates should be considered to bring better qualified women into parliament.

Keywords:

• a critical mass
• a large minority
• women's legislative representation
• women in the Tanzanian legislature

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Faculty Development Committee of Hanover College for funding this research in Tanzania in 2008 and the interviewees for sharing their time and insights.

Notes

1. The countries with special seats for women in parliament in Africa are Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Niger, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

2. ‘Special seats in the Tanzanian parliament existed even before 1985 to represent diverse groups, which included women; however, the system that guaranteed a certain number, later a certain percentage, of parliamentary seats for women came into being only in 1985’ (Yoon 2008, 66).

3. Among the analysts who used the term ‘a large minority’ are Dahlerup (1988) and Sawer (2000).

4. The British Council Tanzania, along with the Tanzania Media Women's Association, the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme and the Hanns Seidel Foundation, have sponsored seminars and workshops for female parliamentarians and female candidates for elective office. In 2005, it sponsored a work shadowing exchange programme that invited Tanzanian female MPs to the British parliament and vice versa.

5. Interview with Wilbrod Slaa. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.19 June. Dodoma.

6. Interview with Samuel Sitta. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.18 June. Dodoma.

7. Interview with Anne Makinda. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.16 June. Dodoma.

8. Interview with Makinda.

9. Interview with Makinda.

10. Interview with Lediana Mafuru Mng'ong'o. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. 19 June. Dodoma.

11. Interview with Makinda.

12. Interview with Rita Mlaki. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.19 June. Dodoma.

13. Interview with Batilda Burian. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.19 June. Dodoma.

14. Interview with a CHADEMA special-seat MP. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.17 June. Dodoma.

15. Interview with Sitta.

16. Interview with Mohamed Habib Juma Mnyaa, a male Civic United Front (CUF) constituency MP. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. 20 June. Dodoma.

17. Interview with Mlaki,

18. Interview with Janet Kahama. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. 20 June. Dodoma.

19. Interview with Zainab Gama. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. 20 June. Dodoma.

20. Interview with Job Ndugai. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.16 June. Dodoma.

21. Interview with Ali Tarab Ali, a male CUF constituency MP. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.18 June. Dodoma.

22. Interview with Burian.

23. Correspondence with Burian, 9 March 2009.

24. Correspondence with Burian.

25. Interview with Mng'ong'o.

26. Interview with Makinda.

27. Interview with Makinda.

28. Interview with Ananilea Nkya. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.12 June. Dar es Salaam.

29. Interview with Ananilea Nkya.

30. Interview with Anna Abdullah, a member of the CCM Central Committee and the Chairperson of the Union of Tanzania Women. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. 20 June. Dodoma. She was appointed by the first president, Julius Nyerere, as a district commissioner and later became the first female regional commissioner; she then held various ministerial positions for more than 20 years. She currently occupies a special seat.

31. Interview with Margaret Mkanga. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.17 June. Dodoma.

32. Interview with Abdullah.

33. Interview with Hamad Mohamed. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. 20 June. Dodoma.

34. Interview with Lucy Nkya, a CCM special-seat MP. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.18 June. Dodoma.

35. Interviews with special-seat MPs. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. June. Dodoma. Interview with Hawa Ghasia, a female CCM constituency MP. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon. 20 June. Dodoma.

36. Interview with Makinda.

37. Interview with Lucy Owenya, a CHADEMA special-seat MP. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.18 June. Dodoma.

38. This translation comes from Mosoba (2008).

39. Interview with Ndugai.

40. Interview with Makinda.

41. Interview with Elietta Switi, a CCM special-seat MP, Dodoma. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.16 June. Dodoma.

42. Interview with Slaa.

43. Interview with Ananilea Nkya.

44. Interview with Aluswe Zoe Mwalwega, British Council. 2008. Interview by M.Y. Yoon.13 June. Dar es Salaam.

45. Interview with Slaa.

46. Correspondence with Burian.

47. Correspondence with Burian.