Women’s Decision-Making and Movement Autonomy in Tanzania

Abstract

Women, like men, maintain simultaneous membership in the household, the conjugal unit, the community, and at the individual levels. Using the latest 2015/2016 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), which is nationally representative, this study incorporates well-supported covariates in the existing literature in a multivariate regression analysis, to measure the relative importance of four domains of factors hypothesized to affect women’s autonomy in household decision-making. These factors are (1) women’s individual characteristics, (2) husband’s/partner’s characteristics, (3) household characteristics, and (4) community-level characteristics. Women’s autonomy was confirmed to be low in Tanzania, more so for the decision authority in purchasing large household items than authority around their own healthcare, decisions to visit family and friends, and the use of their own earnings. Research findings show that women with greater autonomy are more likely to be older, educated, earn their own income, be cohabitating, live in polygamous situations, reside in urban areas, and be married to educated husbands/partners with a higher socioeconomic status. In addition, the study results provide some insight into intrahousehold dynamics, acknowledging the disadvantaged position of women in extended families compared to women in nuclear households. The study results directly inform the Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) monitoring indicators—particularly on the proportion of women with autonomy in decision-making, an indicator under SDG no. 5 and inform education-related policy recommendations.