Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Gendered politics in rural roads: gender mainstreaming in Tanzania's transport sector

Mulongo, Godfrey; Porter, Gina; Tewodros, Amleset

Gendered politics in rural roads: gender mainstreaming in Tanzania's transport sector Thumbnail


Authors

Godfrey Mulongo

Amleset Tewodros



Abstract

This paper explores the impacts of gender mainstreaming initiatives in Tanzania's transport sector on the everyday reality of rural women's lives, including those facing multiple forms of discrimination. Using qualitative methods, including co-investigation with community members, data were triangulated from diverse sources: vulnerable women and other residents in two Tanzanian districts, road contractors, professionals engaged in supporting the country's transport programmes and staff in donor agencies. The results indicate that progress in mainstreaming has been slow. Despite government directives, few women have benefitted from employment in road construction except through two national programmes: the Village Travel and Transport Programme and the Tanzania Social Action Fund. However, most women, particularly those disadvantaged, derive benefit from road improvement, even if only as pedestrians or wheelchair users taking advantage of a smoother surface, or better travel security when vegetation is cut back. For women with the funds and independence to access the expanded transport services that tend to follow road improvements, there can be significant benefits – faster travel, improved access to farms and markets and sometimes lower transport costs. Nevertheless, women's constrained resources and prevailing cultural mores continue to militate against them directly operating transport, whether for personal or business use.

Citation

Mulongo, G., Porter, G., & Tewodros, A. (2019). Gendered politics in rural roads: gender mainstreaming in Tanzania's transport sector. Transport, 173(2), 87-96. https://doi.org/10.1680/jtran.18.00153

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 26, 2019
Online Publication Date Apr 13, 2019
Publication Date Apr 30, 2019
Deposit Date Mar 25, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Proceedings of the ICE - Transport
Print ISSN 0965-092X
Electronic ISSN 1751-7710
Publisher ICE Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 173
Issue 2
Pages 87-96
DOI https://doi.org/10.1680/jtran.18.00153

Files

Published Journal Article (200 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations