A Research On Women Access To Higher Education In Tanzania

Since the independence in 1961, women access to higher education has become one of the country's agenda in Tanzania, various efforts have been made for the purpose of ensuring women participation in higher education. The policies that made to facilitate female's participation are not enough. Much still needs to be done in Tanzania in order to ensure woman access to higher education.The purpose of this study was to investigate woman access to higher education in Tanzania. It explored factors influenced women's enrollment in higher education and further investigated the policies that have been made to influence women access to higher education.Postcolonial feminist theory, which explains women were double colonized by the imperial and patriarchal ideologies, gives a logical way to understand women access to higher education in Tanzania. One hundred and eighty three teachers and students representing two public and private universities were selected for this study. Collection of data involved questionnaires, documentary review and interviews.The discussion of the results was presented through voices of the participants through the use of interviews, questionnaires and documents. The voices revealed the themes that helped to understand the lived experiences of these women. Different studies and literature were used to interpret and discuss the data. Findings revealed that, while the Universities especially University of Dar es Salaam have showed their efforts to increase female's enrollment in higher education, more effort are still to be done in order to increase women access to higher education in Tanzania. It further revealed that dominant concern of girl's in higher education are the absence of enough policy which are direct formulated in helping women enrollment in higher education, lack of understanding and access to education policy, and socio-cultural factors.Indeed, existing social norms still act as a hindrance to women in Tanzania's higher educational scheme. The patriarchal nature of Tanzanian society has gradually crept into the universities. This culture, intentionally or unintentionally, shapes women's experiences in higher education. The socially given attributes, roles, activities, and everyday duties related to being male or female in a certain society impacts the status of the individual's expectations. If, as growing up, boys are made to think that they have main concern more than girls in attending school, and are excluded from performing household tasks, after that they will grow up believing they are better and will anticipate to occupy positions of power. Indeed, girls are considered only good for marriage, childbearing, and taking care of the family.In the light of these findings, relevant recommendations such as review of the current policy so as to be assured of its proper implementation and orientation to female students on the relationship of the policy and women access to higher education, Cultural change through the promotion of campaigns and a focus on ways to deconstruct gendered roles in society are required, enough funds are to be set aside for girl's enrollment in higher education, and universities should encourage student/parents to fill any gaps as part of cost sharing. This will ensure that there will be full interaction between students/parents and their government so as to allow maximum enrollment in higher education to take place among female students.