Plight of the girl-child: The future’s not looking rosy for these young
female students as Tanzanian takes a massive tumble in global rankings
on gender equity and empowerment, losing the edge it had over EA
partners in 2006. PHOTO | FILE
Dar es Salaam. Opportunities for Tanzanian
women to improve their welfare have dwindled in the past six years,
according to a study on gender equity.
The country has back-pedalled on virtually all
gender growth measurements, including economic participation, that
placed Tanzania ahead of 115 countries studied in 2006.
Women in Tanzania are now the least economically
empowered in East Africa, according to the Gender Gap Report 2013 that
was released this week by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The group’s general rankings placed Tanzania 66th
out of the 133 countries surveyed, with Burundi (22) and Uganda (46)
emerging as the best placed in the EAC.
Kenya came last at number 78 while Rwanda--often praised for its pragmatism--was not been featured.
The areas studied for the report are economic
participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and
survival and political empowerment.
WEF takes into consideration labour, income, the
number of the sexes among senior officers and managers, professional and
technical workers, literacy, school enrolment, sex ratio at birth, life
expectancy and women MPs, ministers and presidents.
The findings indicate that Tanzania’s economic
empowerment rating has deteriorated steadily over the years to stand at
position 70 in 2013.
The country topped the global study in this category in 2006 before dropping to fourth and third positions in 2007 and 2008.
It dropped to position 52 in 2009, then came in at positions 57 (2010), 63 (2011) and 60 (2012).
Tanzania’s worst-rated ratings are in education
attainment (118) and health and survival (112). The only bright rating
for Dar is political empowerment at 32.
This index also ranked highest in 2006 at position 26.
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