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About a third of the Tanzania's members of parliament are women, but at a Helsinki seminar prominent representatives from Tanzania agreed that women politicians will only be able to obtain high positions in their country if they can work together across party boundaries.
At a seminar held in Helsinki on 21st May a delegation of Tanzanian women politicians and NGO representatives stressed that Tanzanian women seeking to improve their political status will need to collaborate closely regardless of party political differences, as part of their crucial efforts to change traditional attitudes towards the role of women in politics.
The Helsinki seminar, organised by Demo Finland (Political Parties of Finland for Democracy), Unifem Finland, and the Coalition of Finnish Women's Associations (NYTKIS) under the theme 'Together We Are Stronger', brought together politicians and NGO representatives from both Finland and Tanzania.
Looking at the whole picture
Today 98 of Tanzania's 323 members of parliament are women, but the present government aims that by 2010 half of all MPs should be women. Speakers at the seminar pointed out that the most serious obstacle to women's progress up the political ladder may well be deeply entrenched attitudes within Tanzanian society. A woman's place is still widely seen as being in the home, and particularly not in politics, where women might even have to break conventions by speaking out on behalf of men.
"Women have traditionally been treated as objects, not as subjects," said Ashura Amanzi, chair of the Women's Wing of the Civic United Front, Tanzania's largest opposition party.
Other problems relate to the fragmentation of political issues in different sectors, whose linkages and impacts on women’s position in society are not duly recognised. "When the land is privatised, for instance, leading to the loss of livelihoods in many rural communities, it is women who are most affected by the consequent impoverishment," said Usu Mallya, executive director of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme.
Demo Finland's local co-ordinator in Tanzania Ave Maria Semakafu highlighted the impact of water shortages on girls, who have to fetch water from ever further away from their homes, which can make them vulnerable to rape. If they become pregnant they invariably have to finish their schooling and become prisoners of traditional gender roles that make them submissive to men.
Men teaching each other about women's rights
There has also been progress on gender issues in Tanzania, according to Linah Mwakyembe, who works as a community trainer in the district of Kyela in the southwest of the country. Mwakyembe's job is to teach local villagers, especially women, how to defend their rights, understand decision-making processes, and get involved in politics themselves. She believes that spreading such information is already leading to improvements, since women no longer automatically submit to men's wishes and traditional ways of thinking, but "have started to fight for their rights."
Such changes also require a shift in the attitudes of men. "Some of the men we've been training have been telling other men about the problems caused by traditions that oppress women," said Mwakyembe, stressing that many people still believe that a woman's place is at home.
 Usu Mallya is also glad to see men getting interested in women's rights. "Poor men have particularly changed their attitudes, recognising that gender and class issues are closely linked. If we're not careful, men will soon be joining women's groups and starting to run them!" she joked.
In the future the most serious barriers to the rise of women in Tanzanian politics may be related to the internal hierarchies of political parties. To ensure that as many women as men get into parliament the parties must also select women candidates. This is a key goal of the Network of Tanzanian Women MPs, whose secretary Elietta Switi, an MP from the ruling party CCM, was also part of the Tanzanian women's delegation present at the Helsinki seminar as part of a wider study visit to Finland. "We have to dare to form a women's coalition across party boundaries," she stressed. "Together we are stronger."
ANNA-KAISA HILTUNEN
Women MPs in Tanzania
Tanzania's Constitution entitles women to a certain proportion of parliamentary places, which is presently 30 per cent. Out of the 98 women among the country's 323 members of parliament, 75 occupy the related positions known as 'special seats'.
These special seats are occupied by women from the various parties according to the proportions of the votes gained by each party in elections. Women MPs are generally chosen for these seats by the party leaders, and not the voters, although the women MPs of the ruling party CCM are chosen by the party's women's wing.
An official target has been set that by 2010 women and men should be equally represented in Tanzania's parliament.
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