Participation of women in decision making on income and expenditure matters in households in Tanzania: a case study of Morogoro rural district.

This study was conducted to address women's participation in decision making on household income and expenditure items in Morogoro Rural District. The study identified major households' income sources and expenditure items. It examined the level of participation of women on households' decision making and the factors that affect women's decision-making on household income and expenditure items. The multistage stratified sampling design was adopted in selecting 384 respondents (married women) from two villages; Fulwe and Lubungo. 247 were selected from Fulwe and 137 from Lubungo. Data were analysed by using cross tabulation as a preliminary test of association and Logistic Regression (binary and multinomial). The descriptive analysis shows that 41.7% of women participate in decision making while the rest 58.3% did not participate. Results from binary logistic regression on whether respondents participated in decision making or not revealed that, respondents with primary education (Odds Ratio (OR)=0.419), polygamy type of marital union (OR=2.345) and respondents with average daily income >4000 Tshs (OR=0.462) were statistically significant in describing women's participation in decision making at 5% significance level with p<0.05. Further, the Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR) on who decide on major household's expenditure with categories; mainly husband as a reference category, mainly wife and both husband and wife was done. The results show that wives with average daily income of <4,000 Tshs who make decision with their husbands, as well as wives who make their own decision were less likely to decide on households major expenditure items compared to wives whose households decision is made by husband only. Other variables; occupations, type of marital union and education were significant in explaining on who decides on households major expenditure items in the study area. It is recommended that since women's participation in household decision on income and expenditure items is low; and their participation is contingent upon the type of income sources, more women should be encouraged to engage themselves in self-help (direct) income generating activities.