Tanzania, in keeping with global political trends, reserves 30% of seats in parliament for women. These so-called special seats were introduced with multiparty politics in 1992, in response to the low numbers of women elected to positions of power.

There were only eight elected female parliamentarians after the first multiparty 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 elected directly from the 264 constituencies.

Special seats are credited for increasing women’s representation. This has enabled the passing of a couple of “gender sensitive” laws. However, the special seats system is not the magic bullet for achieving gender equality in political representation across the board.

While political parties have met the legal requirements for nominating women for special seats, concerns linger about the parties’ internal commitment to advancing women’s political participation.

Read more at: https://theconversation.com/tanzanias-political-parties-have-few-women-in-leadership-and-candidate-lists-some-solutions-228199