Despite national policies supporting gender equality and global commitments like the African Union Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, women continue to be underrepresented in leadership within Tanzania’s education system. What is holding women back?

As an Echidna Global Scholar, I researched women’s leadership pathways in Tanzania’s secondary education sector from July to October 2024, seeking to identify the factors enabling or hindering women’s advancement into leadership. I also examined how current policies, strategies, and practices support or impede progress.

Findings reveal that social narratives about gender roles and about leadership translate into opportunities and barriers. These narratives manifest in perceptions held by women themselves as well as in their relations with others around them, and they interact with institutional policies, practices, and structures. Taken together these limit women’s advancements into leadership positions, and while promotion policies and guidelines exist, they often fail to address these issues.

Read more at: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/womens-leadership-in-tanzanias-education-system-what-is-holding-us-back/