Determinants of Women’s Participation in Local Government Political Leadership: A case of the Lushoto District.

Roswe, Frank Chacha (2023) Determinants of Women’s Participation in Local Government Political Leadership: A case of the Lushoto District. Masters thesis, The Open University of Tanzania.

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Abstract

The different national and international organizations have channeled their resources and efforts for promoting women’s participation in politics. However, women’s participation in political leadership especially in the Local Government is low. The study was conducted to assess the determinants of women’s participation in Local Government Political Leadership in the Lushoto District. The specific objectives were to assess the drives influencing women’s participation, the attitudes of women toward participation, and the measures for ensuring effective women's participation in Local Government Political Leadership. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design, involving 100 women respondents. Purposive and simple random samplings were used. The individual survey and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were used in data collection with aid of questionnaires and a checklist of items respectively. The quantitative data were processed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and qualitative were organized into themes. The descriptive statistical analyses, Likert Scale, Man-Whitney Test, and Binary Logistic regression were used to analyze quantitative data while content analysis was used in qualitative data. The findings reveal that 61% of respondents are not interested in politics. Also, monogamy and polygamy as types of marriage affects women’s involvement in political leadership at (P < 0.05). Findings on attitude’s reveal that 72% of respondents agreed that families restrict women’s participation on politics. The women’s attitudes on participation in politics differed significantly by types of education and employment at (P < 0.05). A quarter of respondents 15.5% cited financial support as a major measure to improve women’s participation in political leadership. The study recommends building women’s interest in politics participation through harnessing, rehabilitating, and directing resources on initiatives targeting women and politics, raising awareness of gender equality issues, financing and supporting women’s engagement in politics, and capacity-building on women’s leadership development.

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