Tanzania

Basic Data

Population : 47 million

Life expectancy: 58.9

Years of school: 5.1

GNI per capita (Constant 2005 PPP $): 1383

HDI index rank: 152

Source : UNDP (2013)

Profile

Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa lines between Kenya and Mozambique near the Indian Ocean. With 945,087 square kilometers of total surface area, holding large amount of natural resources, it is said to be a country with high growth potential in economy. However, Tanzania still suffers from high poverty rates and its ranking in human development is 152th out of 187 countries (UNDP, 2013).

The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report shows that the Gender Inequality Index (GII) of Tanzania is 0.556 and ranks it 119th (UNDP, 2013) Near 60% of women live in abject poverty, they do not have enough opportunities to receive education and mainly engage in unskilled work with low salaries. Moreover, laws are lack in protection for women, and what is more, traditional practices remain discriminatory against women (World Trade Press, 2010).

Gender in Employment

LabourForce Participation

In Tanzania, male labour force participation in 1990 was 91.4%, however, male labour force participation in Tanzania started to fall in a very slow speed from 1991. When comes to 2006, male labour force participation was down to 90.3%, and the percentage remains 90.3% until 2011 (The global Economy, 2013).

Figure 1: Tanzania Male labor force participation

On the other hand, female labour force participation in 1990 was only 86.9%, which is 4.5% smaller than male labour force participation. It kept 86.9% to 87.1% between 1990 and 2001 but its progress is different from male labour force participation. When comes to 2002, it started to increase and reached its maximum point in 2006. In 2011, female labour force participation was 88.2% which is very close to male labour force participation (The global Economy, 2013).

From the above analysis, we can see that both male and female in Tanzania is approaching more equal chance to enter labour market.

Figure 2: Tanzania Female labor force participation

Figure 3: Female Labour Force Participation and Employment Rate

Figure 4: Male Labour Force Participation and Employment Rate

From the above diagrams, it shows that around 9.7% of male and 10% of female who have the ability to work but under unemployment. The percentage gap between male and female is very small, so on the other words, being man or woman does not play a significant cause to become unemployment in Tanzania.

Gender gap in economic activity

Figure 5: Occupational segregation by gender

The above 2 parts show that although labour force participation between male and female seems to be more equal, it is obvious to see there is an occupational segregation by gender. At the same time, male have more share in all job categories than female other thanagriculture. Women are over-represented in agricultural works (Milena PACCHIOTTI, 2011). The reason for such phenomenon in Tanzania is that people still keep stereotype between men and women. Also, the traditional practices that treat women as the subordinate of men, so women keep concentrating unskilled jobs rather than decision-making jobs.

Moreover, even if both male and female have a high percentage in agriculture sectors, some reports show that their treatment in agriculture workplace is completely different, for example male only work for 8-10 hours per day, however, female need to work 16-18 hours per day (The United Republicof Tanzania, 2013).

From the diagram, it shows that both male and female mainly engage in agriculture. There are 67.37% of male participate in the sector, while there are 76.15% female. It is because agriculture is the foundation of the Tanzanian economy. It contributesnear 75% exports and half of the national income. And therefore agricultural sector in Tanzania requires large amount of labour and provide employment opportunities to about 80% of Tanzanians (Gender, 2013).

However, if we compare the percentage of male and female that participates in agriculture, the percentage of female is nearly 10% higher than male, while higher percentage of male distributes to the other sectors. It means that Tanzanian female mainly participate in agriculture sector. The higher engagement of male insenior officials, professionals, crafts, percentages of male participation is one of the examples (Milena PACCHIOTTI, 2011).

Wage

According to Gender Gap Report (2013), Tanzania scores 0.68 in wage equality for similar work and ranks the 48th out of 136 countries. It shows that wages for male and female in Tanzania is more equal than half of the assessed countries in Gender Gap Report. However, female in Tanzania only contribute 35% of wage for the whole countries and report shows that female salaries are on average 63% lower than that of male. This unfair treatment in wage between male and female can also be explained by the traditional practices that women are usually discriminated by customs.

Economic Growth

Figure 6: GDP Real Growth rate (%)

Tanzania are always said to be a land of opportunity and with high growth potential. Among all Sub-Sahara Africa countries, Tanzania experiences the best country in economy growth. It keeps a growth rate in gross domestic product (GDP). Besides, Tanzania economy can recover quickly from economic challenges and is expected to remain bound. For example, GDP growth of Tanzania in 2007 and 2008 keeps at 7%. During the global financial crisis in 2009, even if its GDP rate dropped to 6%, it was still an optimistic growth for Tanzania if comparing with other countries.

On the other hand, GDP per capital keeps increasing over a decade. In 1999, Tanzania’s GDP per capital was only US$550. When comes to 2011, its GDP per capital has already increased to US$1500 (Index Mundi, 2013).

Figure 7: GDP per capita (PPP) (US$)

How Does Women Participation in Market Affect Economic Growth?

Even gender inequality in Tanzania is quite high and the society of Tanzania keeps stereotype between men and women, women participation in market keeps a nearly equal level if comparing with men. However, the rate of women participation just makes an illusion of gender equality in workplace, the treatment that women receive is totally different from men.

Nevertheless, it is no doubt that even women receive fewer wages than men and bring only 35% of income for the whole countries, their contribution occupies a large amount to Tanzania’s economy. Tanzania’s economic growth mainly rely on agriculture that account for more than half of the national income and more than 70% women in Tanzania work in agriculture sector, so women’s effort at Tanzania’s economic development cannot be ignored. Moreover, if the situation of women in Tanzania can be changed, for examples balance wage differences or promote equal employment opportunities between men and women, it must have positive impact on Tanzania’s economy as women have more chance to contribute in economic growth.

Reference:

Index Mundi (2013). Historical Data Graphs per Year . Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=tz&v=67.

Milena PACCHIOTTI (2011). Gender (in)equality in the Tanzanian labour market: showing the gap between the legal framework and the evidence provided by labour statistics. Retrieved November 14, 2013 from http://maled.itcilo.org/study-paper-area-1/Thesis_Pacchiotti_A.Y.20112012.pdf.

The Global Economy (2013). Tanzania Economic Indicators . Retrieved November 12, 2013 from http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Tanzania/indicator-SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS/.

The United Republic of Tanzania (2005). National Stratery for Gender Development . Retrieved November 11, 2013 from http://www.mcdgc.go.tz/data/Tanzania_-_National_Strategy_for_Gender_Development.pdf.

The United Republic of Tanzania (2013). Agriculture. Retrieved November 16, 2013 from http://www.tanzania.go.tz/agriculture.html.

The United Republic of Tanzania (2013). Gender. Retrieved November 16, 2013 from http://www.tanzania.go.tz/gender.html.

UNDP (2013). Human Development Report 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013 from http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/HDR/2013GlobalHDR/English/HDR2013%20Report%20English.pdf.

Waly W. (2013). Is this a woman's world? Gender equality in Tanzania. Retrieved November 10, 2013 from http://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/is-this-a-womans-world-gender-equality-in-tanzania.

World Trade Press (2010). Tanzania Society and Culture Complete Report. Petaluma, CA, USA: World Trade Press.