Women and wage work in Tanzania: a case study of Printpack Tanzania Limited

This dissertation examines the problem of women's oppression and subordination in Tanzania, especially as far as wage-work is concerned. Adopting a Marxian approach the paper looks into the position of women wage workers in capitalist societies. It is observed that the position of women in capitalist societies function to reproduce the capitalist relations of production through the state ideological and repressive institutions such as the educational and juridical systems. This is also reflected in the economic aspect where women through sexual division of labour perform jobs which are subordinate. The second chapter is an historical analysis of the position of women workers in Tanzania and reveals that the position of Tanzanian women workers is related in several ways to the productive and reproductive role of women in capitalist societies. This is further revealed in chapter three where a case study is conducted. The research findings reveal that women are oppressed and subordinated through their involvement in productive and reproductive labour. Apart from the household organisations which identify women with domesticity and submission' the state on the other hand intensifies their position through its ideological and repressive institutions which recognize the household organisation and maintains the women's subordinate position through unequal chances in important aspects such as educational opportunities. Moreover, the reflection of household sexual division of labour takes place even at workplace. This intensifies women's subordination, since these are allocated jobs which resemble what they do at home. These are unskilled or semi-skilled jobs which are subordinate and with low pay.