Tanzanian women confront the past and the future

The example of women in Tanzania is taken to illustrate their place in African society over time and their response to conditions which confront them today. Underdevelopment of the national economy and the class formation were inherited from the precolonial and colonial periods and are perpetuated by dependence on external forces. These have enhanced and continue to enhance restrictions for women. Full-scale capital accumulation in the hands of the people and a programme of rural industrialisation will provide the only kind of institutional framework within which the emancipation of women will be possible.