Women’s economic activities and environmental degradation

The study on Women economic activities and environmental degradation aimed at identifying whether self employed economic activities carried by Women have any impact on environmental change. A sample of 150 self employed women in Kinondoni District involved in sand mining, salt production and stone quarrying were interviewed. Generally the study revealed that, the majority of sampled women have low (92.7%) education below Primary Education and low income. Furthermore, most of these women are single with more than 6 dependants to support. They are engaged in self employed activities due to low level of education, sex discrimination and lack of enough capital. Indeed, economic hardship among many women and presence of many dependents in the household force many women to enter activities which in the past were reserved for men such as sand mining, salt mining and stone quarrying, so as to be able to purchase basic needs and other expenses for the family. These activities are energy consuming and production is low and so accelerate health deterioration among women. As a result of uncontrolled exploitation of these resources a large area has been deforested and exposed to the agents of soil erosion. From the findings several recommendations are given which will ensure improvement of women economic activities so as to be conducted with less impact on environmental changes.