How do local gender norms interact with local conceptualisations of empowerment to shape women’s engagement in local dairy value chains in Tanzania?
Outcomes: Women’s Economic Empowerment
View SourceKey Social Norms Take-aways Women’s efforts to become economically empowered are heavily shaped by gender norms that prioritize domestic roles, restrict mobility, and discourage public leadership. Successful strategies depend on navigating these norms. Interventions that understand local dynamics can support incremental but meaningful shifts toward greater agency for women.
Objectives This study explored how local gender norms and community-specific understandings of empowerment shape women’s ability to engage in dairy-related businesses in Tanzania. It aimed to understand how women navigate and negotiate around prevailing social norms while pursuing economic agency in the livestock sector.
Methods The article commences with a literature review exploring how gender norms influence women’s participation in agricultural value chains, and a brief overview of women’s empowerment policies and efforts in Tanzania, and then describes the methods and results of a qualitative study embedded in the Maziwa Zaidi Phase II intervention project. Qualitative data was collected in 2021 in the Tanga Region and Kilimanjaro Region, and included focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and individual interviews with over 140 participants: female and male dairy farmers, agripreneurs, and community influencers (including religious leaders). Thematic analysis using NVivo software was conducted to examine how norms and empowerment concepts intersect in different contexts.
Intervention Details The research was part of the Maziwa Zaidi Phase II (2019–2021), a dairy sector intervention aiming to improve livelihoods through inclusive agribusiness development. It focused on increasing women’s participation by identifying and responding to gendered constraints within the value chain.
Results Local gender norms significantly affect women’s roles in dairy businesses. In Kilimanjaro, norms associated with the Chagga community allow greater involvement of women, though their agency is still regulated by expectations of being “good wives.” In Tanga, dairy work is seen as a man’s role, especially in communities with strong Islamic traditions. Across both regions, women’s mobility, control over income, and public engagement are limited, though women employ creative strategies—such as managing kiosks near home or covert decision-making—to navigate these constraints. Norms are enforced not just by men, but also by other women, elders, and religious leaders. Empowerment is often seen as externally granted rather than internally generated, and women who appear too independent risk social sanctions.
Conclusions Gender norms both shape and limit the ways women engage in the dairy value chain. While some women are finding ways to subtly challenge and shift these norms, entrenched expectations continue to constrain empowerment. Interventions need to recognize local ideas of empowerment, engage both men and women, and create space for norm negotiation at the community level.
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