“They Came Home Over-Empowered”: Identifying Masculinities and Femininities in Food Insecurity Situations in Tanzania

Michelle Bonatti, Juliano Borba, Izabela Schlindwein, Constance Rybak and Stefan Sieber
Additional contact information
Michelle Bonatti: SusLAND: Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF e. V), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Juliano Borba: SusLAND: Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF e. V), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Izabela Schlindwein: SusLAND: Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF e. V), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Constance Rybak: SusLAND: Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF e. V), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Stefan Sieber: SusLAND: Sustainable Land Use in Developing Countries, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF e. V), Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 15, 1-15

Abstract: Gender inequality, embedded in sociocultural structures, persists in Tanzania. It is particularly manifest in access to productive resources, income-generating and employment opportunities, time-use, and educational possibilities. Seeking to contribute to the study of gender roles in Tanzania in the context of food insecurity, this paper presents findings regarding the social role of gender drawn from a study of food security problems and family experiences in Dodoma, Tanzania. The methodology comprised two phases: (1) Face-to-face structured interviews with 333 households; and (2) workshops based on TO—Theater of the Oppressed. These two phases were complemented by repeated research stays in the Dodoma region. TO helps to understand the connections between the private universe of families and their narratives about food insecurity. From the voices of community members in Dodoma, we identify aspects of how men and women perceive the food insecurity situation. Results show that there are several contextual factors related to food insecurity at the community level, and that issues related to domestic violence also appear when cultural patrons and gender roles are questioned. Based on theory and the data collected, we seek not only to comprehend how food insecurity and gender roles are interconnected, but also how to think about new forms of public policies that support gender equality among men and women in rural areas. We conclude that transdisciplinary studies on food insecurity can help public policies address complex scenarios, comprising the multiple and conflicting values present in sociocultural issues, while taking into account individual community needs and specificities.

Keywords: gender inequalities; malnutrition; community perceptions; violence; hunger (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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