Women’s spaces of empowerment: A case of chicken keeping, food security and nutrition in Sanza Ward, Manyoni District, Tanzania

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between chicken keeping and household food security and nutrition. Chicken keeping in particular is understood as an important aspect of women’s culturally constructed spaces. It was the interest of this study to explore how these women negotiate within these traditionally assigned spaces and benefit from them, including using them for household nutrition. To accomplish this, the study used the qualitative design. It was found that the value that women attach to chicken keeping was different from that of men. Men’s interest in chickens was also rising as their monetary value kept on increasing, hence interfering with women’s intentions and need for autonomy in chicken keeping activities as well as the covert contestations between men and women surrounding chicken sales. At the same time, the culturally defined women’s feeding responsibilities within the household shaped ways of chicken use and sale, which also inform on how chicken and chicken products can be used for household nutrition. This study, thus, argues that the taken-for-granted assumptions about women maintaining their households with what they own, such as chicken keeping, needs to be questioned by interrogating the cultural, and social factors to do with chicken keeping and different abilities in maintaining this therein.