{"id":13868,"date":"2026-06-20T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/how-gender-norms-prevent-women-from-using-technology-to-shell-maize-in-tanzania\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:35:46","slug":"how-gender-norms-prevent-women-from-using-technology-to-shell-maize-in-tanzania","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/how-gender-norms-prevent-women-from-using-technology-to-shell-maize-in-tanzania\/","title":{"rendered":"How gender norms prevent women from using technology to shell maize in Tanzania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShelling maize by hand is an easy task and should be left to women. Men should do tough jobs\u201d, said an agro-dealer from Central Tanzania in 2018 during an interview. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/iita-staff\/fischer-gundula\/\">Gundula Fischer<\/a>, a gender expert at <a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/\">IITA<\/a>, picked up on this topic; her research tells a different story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fischer investigated the drudgery of maize shelling among 400 men and women farmers in Kongwa, Kiteto, and Babati districts in Tanzania. Farmers in her study assessed the drudgery of each task in maize cultivation, from land preparation to selling the processed grain. They rated manual shelling as the most tedious task, followed by weeding and land preparation. In contrast, shelling maize with a machine was regarded as easy as drying maize in the homestead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><figure id=\"attachment_22866\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22866\" style=\"width: 820px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22866\" src=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Gender.jpg\" alt=\"How gender norms prevent women from using technology to shell maize in Tanzania\" width=\"820\" height=\"411\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22866\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rural women in Kongwa District, Tanzania, using a low-cost maize thresher run by a diesel engine. (Photo: C. Mutungi\/IITA).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although mechanized maize shelling has become more common in Tanzania over the past decade, women often cannot escape the tedious job of manual shelling. This is because men, as household heads, decide whether or not a shelling machine is hired. Fischer found out that the more women there are in a household, the more men are inclined to have women shell the maize by hand. Women\u2019s labor relief can only be ensured if male-biased decision-making in households is redressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where organizations introduced shelling machines for management by farmer groups, women were frequently less involved in machine operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn their upbringing, women often learn that whenever machines are used for a job, it is not their job. So, there is this fear that restricts their benefits. We need women champions in this regard\u201d, explains a Tanzanian female agricultural engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Apart from the cultural conception that men should operate machines, there is another obstacle women farmers face; machine design often does not consider the needs of different user groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need machines that can be easily started and operated,\u201dsaid the same agricultural engineer, also hinting at the demand of elderly farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Based on these and other study results, Fischer proposes entry points for more equitable and sustainable mechanization\u2014using maize shelling as a case in point. Gender norms that favor imbalanced household decision-making or deem women as \u201cunsuitable\u201d for machine operations need redress. If mechanization goes hand-in-hand with gender-transformative changes within households and at the community, market, and government levels, it will be sustainable, she writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study was published recently in the paper \u201cSustainable and equitable agricultural mechanization? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/renewable-agriculture-and-food-systems\/article\/sustainable-and-equitable-agricultural-mechanization-a-gendered-perspective-on-maize-shelling\/0E2E758B220BFCE3D276E3CBE7D5BD62\">A gendered perspective on maize shelling<\/a>\u201d in <em>Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shelling maize by hand is an easy task and should be left to women. Men should do tough jobs\u201d, said an agro-dealer from Central Tanzania in 2018 during an interview.  Gundula Fischer, a gender expert at IITA, picked up on this topic; her research tells a different story.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":13869,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[242],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[27],"news-type":[],"hub":[62],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[199],"class_list":["post-13868","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gender","location-tanzania","hub-eastern-africa","item-year-199"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How gender norms prevent women from using technology to shell maize in Tanzania - IITA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/how-gender-norms-prevent-women-from-using-technology-to-shell-maize-in-tanzania\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How gender norms prevent women from using technology to shell maize in Tanzania - IITA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shelling maize by hand is an easy task and should be left to women. 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