Influence of rural women’s time allocation on their wealth statuses in busega district, tanzania

Abstract

The study examined time allocation per day among household chores versus income generation activities that influence wealth statuses of rural women in Busega District, Tanzania. Cross-sectional research design was adopted to conduct the study. The methods applied for data collection include household survey, focus group discussions, non-participant observations and documentary reviews. Qualitative data were analysed through content analysis. Quantitative data were analysed through cross-tabulation and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results show that, the means of hours used by rural women in conducting each activity per day were lopsided on household chores. The average time shows that each rural woman used approximately 6 hours for conducting household chores and at least two hours for income generation activities per day. Furthermore, the wealth statuses were established by computing Principal Component Analysis as it was revealed that the majority 62.9% (132) of the rural women were poor having low incomes. The tercile classification took account for below TZS 200,000 indicating poor, TZS 200,001 to 600,000 for middle and TZS 600,001 and above for better-off as higher income. The study concludes that rural women’s income growth has been hampered by the burden of household chores because they were limited to participate effectively in productive activities. The paper recommends that, the government through the Ministry of Community Development, Gender and Special Groups experts should foster interventions that are grounded on increasing rural women’s participation in income generation activities