How gender affects teacher perfomance at work: the case of primary school women teachers in Tanzania

This study is based on the view that gender is a socio-cultural conventional association of certain roles and functions in a society with femininity or masculinity. It is not something inherent in the biology of the male or female sex as such. Accordingly, the division of labour in the household is regarded in this study to be gender based; there is nothing sacrosanct about it. And yet in society it is taken for granted as though it were God ordained. In that context this study has sought to explore, through the viewpoint of women teachers, how the demands of the gender-defined roles at the household were perceived particularly in terms of how they affected a woman teacher's job performance at school. In other words, the study sought to find out the extent to which a woman teacher succeeded or failed to balance the demands of the household roles that were conventionally regarded to be feminine with professional school responsibilities that were not viewed in gender perspective. The study has used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to guide the exploration of the current situation which faces the woman as an employed teacher and as a woman in the household. The quantitative approach involved a general survey which was conducted on 42 teachers (33 women and 9 men). Of the women teachers,19 come from the urban and 14 from the rural settings.Out of the women teachers, 7 were strategically selected for indepth (ethnographic) study carried out in the form of both classroom observations and indepth interviews.The data from the indepth study has been presented in the form of appended case studies as well as recurrent themes in chapter Five. The findings have revealed that the performance of the woman teacher at the workplace was adversely affected by the gender based roles in the household which were perceived to be taxing and time consuming. The woman teacher regarded herself as overburdened because in her view her spouse gave her little or no assistance in the and the help from housegirl/domestic servants hardly affordable) was often ambivalent. The household demands on the time of women teachers hav proven to be the main cause of teacher absenteeis at school. Women teachers traced the negative influence of the gender roles at the household on their lives right from their early childhood days as they were growing up, through school and college days to the present time as women bringing up families and as employed teachers. The study has also revealed that, although the roles in the household were overburdening the women teachers, society regards them as private. The women question this stance of the society as unrealistic and demand that it should recognize the household roles as public because failure to perform them would definitely have very serious effects upon the society at large and on the school population in particular. As far as the women teachers were concerned their working environment should always be taken to include the household and the school. As such therefore, it is unrealistic at present to assess the performance of a woman teacher at the workplace without taking into consideration her gender-assigned roles in the household. From the above thesis, several recommendations have been made. The first and foremost was the call of women teachers to the society to regard the gender-assigned roles not as private but public; so that in turn, the need may be realized for revisiting the gender-based division of labour in the household and ensure that men and women share work equally for the benefit of the household and the society as a whole.Secondly, in so far as education policy is concerned, a review of the policy of Education for Self-reliance has been recommended so as to inject in it a gender sensitivity that should lead to inculcation of attitudes in favour of gender parity and against the prevailing negative gender stereotyping in education. Recommendations have also been made for the attention of the Ministry of Community Development and Women Affairs. Thirdly the study has recommended a review of the legal system to affirm female rights in society and punish abusers of these rights. Also it has been suggested that a broader research be undertaken than has been done by this author here. The subject of how workplace roles impact the households of working women needs to be looked into. Furthermore the role of housegirls in the home of working women should be researched more deeply.