Development Policies in Tanzania: Some Implications for Women

Recent development policies in Tanzania, notably in the areas of land holding, re‐settlement of villages, and housing, may well have important implications for women. Under the traditional system, women enjoyed a relatively large degree of autonomy, particularly because of their rights to hold land as individuals, rather than through their husbands. Because many policies are based on the assumption that productive and consumption units are households headed by males, and because of the construction of a new form of ‘family’, there is a possibility that women will be re‐defined as dependents and thus lose much of their autonomy.