Gender Inequality On Decision Making In Tanzania: Challenges And Prospects: A Case Study Of Zanzibar Urban District

ABSTRACT

This study highlighted the nature and extent of gender inequality in Zanzibar. The study examine the reasons for gender inequality and focus in Urban District. It also explored the measures that could be taken to reduce gender inequality in this area to both individual and institutions. It involved a number of theoretical frameworks including learning theory and related paradigms like Liberal Feminists, Marxists –tradition and Poststructuralist theories and other concepts. A case study design was employed involving both qualitative (more emphasized) and quantitative methods in both data collection and analysis. Information was collected from 113 participants in order to get a deeper understanding of the cases, selected by simple random sampling from the government and private officials, politicians, the community from Urban District and Students from various Universities in Zanzibar. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19. Data were collected through questionnaires, documentation, focus group discussions and observation. The data gathered, were then analyzed through editing, coding, classification and tabulation. The results showed gender inequality exists in all selected groups. The study identifies various reasons for gender inequality in Zanzibar. These can be summarized into: socio-cultural, historical, individual, political and economic factors. As a response to those factors, the study therefore comes out with various strategies as a restructuring plan. Due to the nature and magnitude of the problem restructuring should focus on three levels, the social level, the institutional level and the individual level. The finding of this study are significant because they will offer a framework of understanding the gender inequality in Zanzibar and will also serve as a source of information for women themselves, other stake holders and policy makers.