Tanzania, in line with global political trends, reserves 30% of seats in Parliament for women. These so-called special seats were introduced with the multiparty system in 1992, in response to the low number of women elected to positions of power.
There were only eight women parliamentarians elected after the first multi-party elections in 1995. Ten years later, 17 women were elected to parliament, representing 7% of legislative seats. Fast forward to the 2020 general elections: women make up 37.4% of parliament. However, only 27 women (10.2%) were directly elected in the 264 constituencies.
Special seats are credited to increase the representation of women. This allowed the adoption of some “gender-sensitive” laws. However, the special seats system is not the silver bullet for achieving gender equality in political representation at all levels.
Even if political parties meet legal requirements for nominating women to special seats, concerns persist on the internal commitment of parties to advance the political participation of women.
In a recent paper I set out to assess whether major political parties were intentionally seeking to increase the participation of women in their internal leadership positions and in their candidate lists. In particular, I examined whether their constitutions contained voluntary gender quotas beyond compliance with quotas provided for in national laws.
I discovered that the constitutions of both parties recognized women’s right to representation as dedicated in international and regional conventions as well as national laws, but these engagements largely begin and end with the creation of a women’s wing. Men dominate party decision-making bodies at the national and lower levels.
Since its creation in 1992, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema or Party for Democracy and Development) has never had a woman among its six main national leaders. decision Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Revolutionary Party) only appointed its first female national president and the first female deputy secretary general on the mainland in 2021, 44 years after the party was founded in 1977.
Where are the parties?
At first glance, Tanzania has made progress in the representation of women. President Samia Suluhu Hassan is one of the rare female presidents that the African continent has ever had. But this does not correspond to the constitutional conception of the CCM. The position of president became vacant on March 17, 2021, when John Pombe Magufuli died suddenly in office. Suluhu, then the first female vice president in Tanzania’s history, became president.
She was elected president of the CCM, in keeping with the party’s tradition of the president being the head of the party.
Furthermore, for approximately two years, Christina Mndeme held the position of position of the deputy secretary general of the mainland. She was the first woman to hold such a position.
As gender representation was not included in the CCM constitution, progress was short-lived.
CCM decision-makers: For example, while the CCM had two women (33%) among its six national party leaders between 2021 and December 2022, this number fell to one (16%) after the December 2023 internal elections under Suluhu’s leadership.
The national structures of the two main political parties show that commitment to women’s participation is weak. Women now represent 28% of the national general assembly, 23% of the national executive committee, 25% of the central committee and 16% of the national secretariat.
Chadema decision-makers: In Chadema, women made up 10% of its national convention after the party’s elections in 2019. Only 8.6% of the board of directors are women, 15.6% of the central committee and 10% of the national secretariat.
The CCM seems to be ahead with 16 to 28% women in the main decision-making bodies compared to Chadema (8 to 15%). But both parties remain below 30% principle of critical mass established in the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. They also fall well short of the 50/50 men and women representation required by international and regional conventions.
Likewise, the constitutions of the CCM and Chadema do not set any numerical objective for gender representation in the election of their leaders and in the nomination of candidates for local and general elections.
Currently, women make up only 10.5% of party presidents and only 10.5% of general secretaries of 19 registered political parties. Women wearing makeup 9.2% of all candidates for all positions in the 2020 general elections.
Exclusively male affair
At lower levels of party decision-making, the situation is the same. Women make up a small minority on corporate boards, advisory boards and key departments.
The CCM board of directors is composed of a president and eight members. At the time of my investigation, only one was a woman. Chadema fares better on this point with an equal representation of three men and three women. This measure is both voluntary and temporary, because the party’s statutes do not specify the gender composition of the board of directors.
The CCM Advisory Council is made up of former presidents who, by custom, have chaired the CCM for the continent and for Zanzibar. The council also includes former vice-presidents of national parties. Since its creation in 1977, the CCM advisory board has been composed exclusively of men.
Finally, representation at the departmental level reveals the same bias. Four of the five CCM departments are headed by men. Men are at the head of the four departments of Chadema, called directorates.
Despite the difficulties encountered in obtaining data, the available information pointed to the same underrepresentation of women in the lower administrative levels of both parties.
Next steps
The low level of women’s representation forces the CCM and Chadema, as well as other political parties, to adopt voluntary gender quotas for leadership positions and candidate lists, in accordance with law governing the affairs of political parties.
Alternatively, the law governing the affairs of political parties should define numerical gender representation targets for party leadership positions, decision-making bodies and candidate lists, including rewards and sanctions.
