The context for women's political participation globally, in Africa and in Tanzania

Women's participation in political life is critical for the country's democratization process and sustainability.Footnote ²⁴ It is an effective indicator for assessing the quality of democracy and determining the legitimacy, responsibility and accountability of a democratic regime.Footnote ²⁵ In any democratic space, critical decisions, laws and regulations are made in the representative bodies. In order to obtain inclusive and gender-responsive laws, policies, budgets and programmes, the demographic representation of diverse citizen groups, including women, in decision-making bodies is critical. Despite this realization, the underrepresentation of women is a common characteristic in governance structures of both established and new democracies. Currently, the global proportion of women parliamentarians stands at 26.1 per cent.Footnote ²⁶ Only five countries – namely Rwanda, Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates – have attained equal representation of men and women in parliaments.Footnote ²⁷ In sub-Saharan Africa, the representation of women in parliaments is low, with 29.2 per cent of elected or nominated parliamentarians being women.Footnote ²⁸ In the East African region, women occupy 32 per cent of parliamentary seats. In Tanzania, while women account for 37.4 per cent of the Parliament, only 9.8 per cent are directly elected from constituencies; others access parliamentary seats through the special seats system or presidential appointment.Footnote ²⁹

Historically, laws have been used to reinforce negative societal perceptions of women in public life and consequently sideline them from political life. The “theory of gendered organizations” calls attention to the politics of exclusion, pointing to ways gender privilege and disadvantage are created and maintained through law and institutional and political practices which distribute political opportunities based on race and gender.Footnote ³⁰ According to the theory, male lawmakers, being the dominant sex in many countries’ representative bodies, have created laws that reinforce male societal privilege and inhibit women from political life. The legal exclusion of women from political life can be traced to the first Athenian democracy, which legally banned women, enslaved people and foreigners from politics.Footnote ³¹ In the fifth century, the Salic law implemented in the Roman Empire prevented women from inheriting land and owning property, the prerequisites for political power.Footnote ³² In the African context, gendered institutions, including laws, social structures and patriarchal norms and practices, promote and maintain gender inequalities, often to the advantage of men, who form the majority of traditional leadership structures. The status quo makes it challenging for women to participate in public life, have a voice and access political power.Footnote ³³

In Tanzania, the legal framework has also been one of the main hindrances to women's access to positions of power, including in elected parliamentary positions. For example, the 1961 Constitution and the immediate subsequent amendments contained no deliberate efforts to facilitate women's access to positions of power.Footnote ³⁴ This is despite the fact that women played a critical role during the struggle for Tanganyika's independence. For example, in collaboration with fellow women, Bibi Titi, through the Umoja wa Wanawake wa Tanzania (UWT, Union of Tanzanian Women), mobilized men and women to support the independence movement.Footnote ³⁵ Nevertheless, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first prime minister of independent Tanganyika, appointed an all-men cabinet a few months after the country gained its independence from the British in 1961. Nyerere argued that women lacked the political experience to serve in the government.Footnote ³⁶

While Tanganyika obtained independence in 1961 as a multiparty state, it became a de facto one-party state at independence and de jure in 1965. The negative perception of women's ability and experience to engage in political life persisted and meant that the political arena during the single-party system was a male domain. It took two decades after the transition to the single-party system for the first woman to win a constituency, in 1985.Footnote ³⁷ Later, in 1985, Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the only party, reserved 15 parliamentary seats for women due to pressure from the international and regional community to include women in positions of power. The seats benefited CCM women through the UWT (the CCM's women's wing).Footnote ³⁸ However, no measures were taken to ensure electoral laws, namely the 1977 Constitution and the National Elections Act, contained mechanisms to promote women to stand for and win directly elected seats.Footnote ³⁹ Consequently, only two women won directly elected parliamentary seats in the 30 years that the single-party system existed in Tanzania.Footnote ⁴⁰

The 1990s witnessed significant democratization efforts in the African continent.Footnote ⁴¹ Consequently, both internal and external factors led to the re-adoption of multiparty democracy in Tanzania in 1992, with the first multiparty election being undertaken in 1995.Footnote ⁴² Patchy amendments were made to the 1977 Constitution and the National Elections Act to allow the country to transition to multiparty democracy.Footnote ⁴³ The 1992 Political Parties Act was enacted to guide the formation and management of political parties.Footnote ⁴⁴ This Act contained no directives to ensure political parties nominate women candidates.Footnote ⁴⁵ The reintroduction of multiparty democracy also established, in the 1977 Constitution, 15 per cent of reserved parliamentary seats for women through the special seats system.Footnote ⁴⁶

Three decades of operating under multiparty democracy has seen changes made in the legal framework governing political participation and elections. The Political Parties Act has been amended, and new laws, such as the 2010 Election Expenses Act, which seeks to regulate the sourcing and utilization of finances during elections, have been enacted and further amended.Footnote ⁴⁷ Notably, none of the amendments to the Constitution, the National Elections Act, the Political Parties Act or the Election Expenses Act have significantly transformed how women take part in and win competitive parliamentary seats. To respond to the slow progress of women's access to elected parliamentary seats, the government kept on increasing the number of special seats for women, from 15 per cent to 20, 30 and 40 per cent in 2000, 2005 and 2015, respectively.Footnote ⁴⁸ Accordingly, since 1992, most women have accessed the Parliament through the special seats system; fewer women parliamentarians have vied for and won constituencies directly, as depicted in Table 1.

Table 1. Trend of the number of women in Parliament 1995–2021

Source: National Electoral Commission elections reports of the 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 general elections

Legal challenges facing women's access to directly elected parliamentary positions

Tanzania celebrates 30 years of multiparty democracy with some great achievements in women's political participation. Since 2022, two arms of the state are headed by women;Footnote ⁴⁹ the women's special seats system, which was first introduced and set at 15 per cent in 1985, has increased to 40 per cent; the number of women in Parliament has increased by 20 per cent, from 16 per cent in 1995 to 37.4 per cent after the 2020 general elections; and the number of women directly elected from constituencies has also increased, from 8 women in 1995 to 26 women in 2020. That notwithstanding, 30 years of multiparty democracy has seen fewer women vie for and win parliamentary elections directly. The 1977 Constitution, article 66(a–f), with its five ways through which citizens, including women, can access parliamentary seats, has shortcomings that hinder women's access to elected parliamentary positions.

The cross-cutting challenge is the requirement of age and political affiliation. In Tanzania, while a person of 18 years of age can vote in an election, a candidate for a parliamentary seat needs to be 21.Footnote ⁵⁰ Similarly, candidates need to be members of a political party and receive the party's sponsorship to stand for an elected position.Footnote ⁵¹ The age and party sponsorship criteria limit how citizens, women included, can contest elected parliamentary seats. Article 25 of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Tanzania ratified in 1976, requires every citizen to have the right and opportunity, without any distinctions and without unreasonable restrictions, to take part in the conduct of public affairs, to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections. The UN Committee on Human Rights has also clarified that “anyone otherwise eligible to stand for election should not be excluded by unreasonable or discriminatory requirements, including because of political affiliation”.Footnote ⁵² Unlike many other countries, including some of its neighbours such as Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, Tanzania does not allow for independent candidates.Footnote ⁵³ This is despite the fact that a 2013 ruling by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights required Tanzania to allow independent candidates.Footnote ⁵⁴ Prohibiting independent candidates bears the potential of restricting alternative entry points to the political space and different voices that may resonate with the specific needs of marginalized groups, including women, that do not fall within the remit and political ideologies of mainstream political parties.Footnote ⁵⁵

Similarly, the ICCPR, article 25, stipulates that any person of age should be able to vie for an elected position. The UN Committee on Human Rights recognized that there may be reasons to require a higher age for election or appointment to particular offices, but such limitations must be justifiable on objective and reasonable criteria.Footnote ⁵⁶ With no reasonable justification provided, the three-year gap in Tanzania between being legally allowed to vote and being able to vie for a parliamentary position is an obstacle for young people, including young women, to exercise their political rights. It hinders diversity and inclusion in elections and, consequently, in the representation of youth perspectives and experiences in the decision-making process.Footnote ⁵⁷

Further, Tanzania's dominant electoral system vitiates the ability of women to stand in constituencies. The first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system has existed since Tanzania gained independence.Footnote ⁵⁸ Under this system, the country is divided into geographical electoral constituencies, and political parties are expected to place candidates in constituencies.Footnote ⁵⁹ Voters then vote for their preferred candidate in the constituency and are allowed to vote for only one candidate; the candidate with the most votes in the constituency is deemed the winner. The FPTP system does not favour female candidates due to social and cultural norms, which position women as belonging in the private and domestic sphere and men in the public sphere and as natural leaders.Footnote ⁶⁰ These norms, in turn, influence political parties, which lean towards nominating male candidates, and voters’ preference for male candidates.Footnote ⁶¹ Women are viewed as incapable or incompetent leaders and are considered risky candidates by political parties. As depicted in Table 1, since 1992, most women have accessed the Parliament through the special seats system; fewer women parliamentarians have vied for and won constituencies directly.Footnote ⁶² Table 2 shows that the number of women nominated for parliamentary seats has increased incrementally since the first multiparty election, from a low of 4.4 per cent in 1995 to 23.3 per cent in 2020. This notwithstanding, the FPTP electoral system affects the placement of female candidates in constituencies, with political parties placing women in hard-to-win constituencies. It also affects voter preferences and how voters select women candidates.Footnote ⁶³ Consequently, after three decades of a multiparty democracy, Tanzanian women still make up less than 10 per cent of elected parliamentarians. The status quo has contributed to the low numbers of women nominated for and elected to constituency parliamentary seats since the 1995 elections, as shown in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2. Percentage of women and men in nominations for parliamentary elections since 1995

Source: National Electoral Commission elections reports of the 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 general elections

Table 3. Elected female parliamentarians in the National Assembly 1995–2020

Source: National Electoral Commission elections reports of the 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 general elections

Another significant obstacle for women entering Parliament is gender-based violence during elections. The National Elections Act, the Code of Ethics and the Electoral Code of Conduct (for the 2020 election) recognize the importance of minimizing violence during elections. The Electoral Code of Conduct for the 2020 general election, for example, prohibited the use of abusive language, harassment, threats or inciting violence or discrimination based on gender, disability, colour or body structure in the election campaigns. Nonetheless, the measures taken against those committing violence during elections are minimal and implemented haphazardly, and therefore provide little deterrence to perpetrators. For example, a 2015 study on gender-based violence during elections recorded 69 per cent of women electoral candidates self-reporting as having experienced abusive language, 17 per cent experiencing physical attacks and 13 per cent receiving demands for sexual favours.Footnote ⁶⁴ There were reports during the 2020 general election of instances of violent and belittling rhetoric against female candidates: in Mara Region, a campaign manager labelled a female candidate a “prostitute” while appealing for people to vote for a male candidate; in Rukwa Region, a parliamentary candidate reportedly urged people during a political rally not to vote for a female candidate because “she would not be able to represent them while on her menstrual period”.Footnote ⁶⁵ The fact that gender-based violence during elections in Tanzania is largely met with a porous legal framework and with impunity continues to perpetuate its occurrence and consequently scares women away from public life, including contesting parliamentary seats.

A further challenge for women's access to Parliament is difficulties in accessing campaign funding. The 2010 Elections Expenses Act controls election financing by political parties but does not contain any specific measures for addressing women's unique financial challenges during elections. The Political Parties Amendment Act (PPAA), section 3(c) and (d), contains guidelines on political parties’ income, expenditure and accountability. It does not, however, guide the ways that political parties’ subventions can be used to advance the participation of women. In Kenya, for example in the Political Parties Act 2011, section 23, political parties are legally required to utilize the funds from the Political Parties Fund to advance the participation of vulnerable groups in the political processes, among other things. In addition, the Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission allows women and other vulnerable groups to pay half of the standard nomination fee.Footnote ⁶⁶ Unlike in Kenya, political parties in Tanzania do not have a legal obligation to use their subsidies to promote the participation of women in political processes; how they are utilized is at the sole discretion of the parties. Usually, parties that receive subsidies from the government allocate a small amount to their women's wings, but this is usually not enough to finance capacity-strengthening programmes to promote women's effective participation in political processes, including in elections.Footnote ⁶⁷

Further, the special seats system also hinders women's access to directly elected parliamentary seats.Footnote ⁶⁸ As a form of temporary special measure, the special seats system has contributed significantly to increasing the overall number of women in Parliament. For example, after the 2020 elections, women accounted for 37.4 per cent of total parliamentary seats. However, only 9.8 per cent of women are directly elected from constituencies, and the rest come from the special seats system. In all the six elections Tanzania has held since 1995, most women parliamentarians have emerged from the special seats system.

The special seats system has done more than just bring more women into Parliament. It has contributed to a significant transformation in the perception of women in leadership and has provided an entry point for women into politics. Several women have moved from being special seats MPs to standing for and winning constituency seats, including in highly patriarchal societies like the Mara Region.Footnote ⁶⁹ Women who started their political careers as special seats parliamentarians have become speakers of the National Assembly, ministers and deputy ministers. The first female president of Tanzania, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, also started her political career as a special seat parliamentarian.Footnote ⁷⁰ Women in special seats have also played a significant role in legislating for gender-sensitive laws, including laws related to land ownership, employment, education and sexual offences.Footnote ⁷¹ That notwithstanding, implementing the special seats system in Tanzania has had a perverse effect on how women transition to elected constituency seats. Anecdotal evidence points to political parties encouraging women not to vie for constituencies, promising to offer them special seats in return. Voters are also fed with negative perceptions of women who choose to stand for constituency seats, with such women branded as “greedy” because they choose to stand for a competitive seat while they have their special seats. The weaknesses in the legal framework have also contributed to the poor transition of women from special to competitive seats. Although the 1977 Constitution, article 81, requires the National Election Commission (NEC) to create procedures for the nomination of special seats for parliamentarians by political parties, no such procedures have been developed to date. How and which women are selected for special seats remains at the sole discretion of the political party and is not a legal requirement. This lack of guidance from the NEC has contributed to different systems across political parties in their selection of special seats members, thus often exacerbating systems of patronage and corruption.Footnote ⁷² Consequently, special seats parliamentarians are not elected by voters, do not substantively represent any geographical area, serve at the party's discretion and are not eligible to be nominated for the position of prime minister.Footnote ⁷³ As a form of temporary special measure, the women's special seats system is meant to be a time-limited intervention to provide women with a stepping stone, to gain political experience and financial muscle to transition to competitive seats. However, there are no term limits for special seats for Tanzanian parliamentarians, which has contributed to women serving for decades under special seats without transitioning to constituency seats, thus limiting the opportunity for other women to access the Parliament and gain political experience. These challenges demonstrate that the practice of the special seats system in Tanzania is contrary to the instructions of the CEDAW, article 4, which requires temporary special measures to not maintain unequal or separate standards and to be temporary. Overall, these challenges lead to disputes in political parties,Footnote ⁷⁴ affect the quality and competence of women special seats parliamentarians and impact on how special seats parliamentarians transition to elected parliamentary seats.Footnote ⁷⁵

The existence of a special seats system also makes political parties reluctant to adopt voluntary gender quotas to promote the inclusion of women within the parties and beyond. The PPAA, section 6(a)(5), requires political parties “to promote, among other things, principles of gender, youth and social inclusion in the (a) formulation and implementation of its policies; (b) nomination of candidates for elections; and (c) election of its leaders”. However, four years after the advent of the PPAA, political parties have not adopted voluntary gender quotas for the nomination or election of party leaders or in the nomination of candidates for local and general elections. The political parties’ initiatives to include women are limited to establishing women's wings and the nomination and election of a token number of women to be represented in decision-making organs. Gaps in the PPAA also enable political parties’ non-compliance; although it requires parties to adhere to principles of gender and social inclusion, it does not establish compliance thresholds, nor does it provide incentives for compliance or penalties for non-compliance.Footnote ⁷⁶

Another way that women can become members of Parliament is by being president, Attorney General or Speaker. Since independence, all the ten appointed Attorney Generals have been men,Footnote ⁷⁷ while the country has had two female speakers out of eight in total.Footnote ⁷⁸ The country has had one female president (Suluhu) among the six presidents since independence.Footnote ⁷⁹ Thus, more men have been accessing the Parliament through these modalities than women. A final way through which women can access the Parliament is through presidential appointment. The Constitution gives power to the president to select ten additional members of Parliament at his / her discretion, five of whom must be women.Footnote ⁸⁰ Although women are guaranteed to access the Parliament through this modality, there are no legal requirements to consider other excluded groups based on age or disability, including women, while making these appointments.