By Business Insider Reporter
Tanzania has fallen behind several East African neighbours in closing the gender gap, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, which benchmarks 148 countries across four key areas: economic participation, education, health, and political empowerment.
The report shows that Tanzania’s overall gender parity score stands at 67.3%, placing it below Rwanda (80.4%), Burundi (77.2%), Uganda (72.0%) and Kenya (69.0%).
It also trails the Sub-Saharan Africa regional average of 68.0%, positioning the country at a crossroads in its efforts toward inclusive development.
East Africa’s mixed progress
East Africa has historically performed better than many regions in women’s political representation, with Rwanda leading globally in parliamentary gender parity.
In contrast, Tanzania’s progress has been inconsistent, particularly in economic participation and leadership roles.
While Tanzania has made strides in health and education parity – with high scores in female life expectancy and enrolment rates – the country struggles with closing the gap in estimated earned income, labour force participation, and senior-level representation.
“Gender gaps in economic opportunity are a hidden tax on productivity and innovation,” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director at the World Economic Forum. “Tanzania, like many developing economies, must invest in women’s full economic inclusion as a strategic pillar of growth.”
Political empowerment still a bottleneck
One of the key drag factors on Tanzania’s score is political empowerment.
Women hold less than 30% of cabinet positions and parliamentary seats, far behind Rwanda’s near-parity performance and below the Sub-Saharan African average of 37.7% in parliaments and 40.2% in ministerial roles.
Despite having had a female Head of State – President Samia Suluhu Hassan – Tanzania’s structural barriers to broader female leadership persist.
According to the report, only nine countries globally have closed more than half of the political empowerment gap.
The economic opportunity gap
On the economic front, Tanzania scored below the regional average in indicators such as:
Labour force participation: Lower than male counterparts, especially in formal sectors.
Wage equality: Women earn significantly less than men for similar work.
Representation in leadership: Women are underrepresented in senior economic positions.
Botswana and Namibia are cited in the report as African countries demonstrating that high gender parity is achievable in economic participation, with Botswana ranking first globally in this category.
The cost of inaction
According to the WEF, it will take 123 years to close the global gender gap at the current pace. For economic participation, the timeline stretches to 135 years.
For political empowerment, the gap may persist for another 162 years if current trends continue.
For Tanzania, failure to accelerate gender reforms risks lost GDP growth, lower foreign investment appeal, and slower poverty reduction – especially as women represent over half of the nation’s population.
Policy recommendations
The report recommends a multi-sectoral approach to narrow the gender gap including legal reforms to enforce wage equity and prevent discrimination.
The report also recommends targeted investments in female entrepreneurship and leadership pipelines.
The report also suggests strengthening of social protection and care infrastructure to reduce the unpaid labour burden on women.
Finally, it suggests data-driven tracking of gender targets in public and private institutions.
A regional wake-up call
As East Africa positions itself as a rising economic and innovation hub, gender inclusion will be a key differentiator.
Rwanda, Namibia, and Burundi’s consistent top-tier rankings are clear evidence that resource levels alone do not dictate gender outcomes – political will, accountability, and policy action do.
Tanzania has the potential to follow suit, but only if the gap between aspiration and implementation is closed with urgency.
Source: World Economic Forum – Global Gender Gap Report 2025
