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Beyond the “Him-Her-ing” Dichotomy: Unpacking Gendered Power Logics in Tanzanian Public Administration

Abstract

Despite decades of policy commitment to gender equity in Tanzania, substantive inequality within public administration endures. This study moves beyond quantifying women's underrepresentation to investigate the discursive and performative mechanisms that sustain a gendered power logic, termed him-her-ing. Situated within post-structural feminist theory and drawing on qualitative data from 21 in-depth interviews and a critical review of policy documents, this paper reveals how administrative practices—from leadership norms to routine task allocation—continuously reproduce a binary that privileges masculine-coded authority. Findings demonstrate that ostensibly neutral bureaucratic procedures, religious and customary influences, and informal patronage networks coalesce to marginalize feminine subjectivities, even within inclusive policy frameworks. The study concludes that dismantling this logic requires not merely adding women to existing structures but fundamentally reimagining administrative culture through feminist pedagogies and intersectional institutional audits.

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