Download pdf
The First Female President in Tanzania: Analyzing Samia Suluhu Hassan's Electoral Success
- 1 Communication University of China
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The inauguration of Samia Suluhu Hassan as Tanzania's first female president in March 2021 caught the world's attention. Since the highest political positions are typically dominated by men, the career life of a new female president could be instructional for achieving gender parity in political participation. Previous Academic literature has studied women in power from different perspectives, including the upbring environment, personal characteristics, and special social context. In this article, I examine Samia's electoral success in the 2010 election, which was a major milestone on her path to becoming president, as it brought her to key positions in the Tanzanian government and the ruling party. I argue that Samia Suluhu's electoral success is largely due to her personal charisma and attributes, the encouraging international and domestic social context for women, as well as local politics and civil unrest in Zanzibar, which instigated a social consensus for the need for a new leadership style that Samia offered.
Keywords
female president, politics, Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania, Africa
[1]. United Nations. (1948). Universal Declaration Of Human Rights (p. Article 21).
[2]. United Nations. (2021). Women In Politics: 2021.
[3]. Ikulu ya Tanzania. (2005). Constitution Of The United Republic Of Tanzania (pp. Article 37(3).
[4]. Aikande, Clement Kwayu. (2022). Tanzania's Hassan Has Made Changes - But The Ruling Party Retains A Tight Grip.
[5]. YouTube. (2022). Full Historia ya Maisha ya Mama Samia Mpaka kuwa Kiongozi [Video].
[6]. Meena, R. E., Rusimbi, M., & Israel, C. (2017). Women and political leadership: Facilitating factors in Tanzania. Uongozi Institute.
[7]. Mbilinyi, M. (1972). The State of Women in Tanzania. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 6:2. Pp 371-377.
[8]. Schofield, J., Schoofs, S., & Kotecha, H. (2010). Building Inclusive Governance: Women’s Political Participation in Conflict-affected Georgia. IFP Gender Cluster: Country Case Study: Georgia. Initiative for Peace Building, International Alert.
[9]. Porter, E. (2003). Women, political decision-making, and peace-building. Global Change, Peace & Security, 15(3), 245-262.
[10]. Eagly, A. H. & Carli, L. L. (2007). Through the labyrinth: The truth about how women become leaders. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
[11]. Rhode, D. L. (2017). Women and leadership. Oxford University Press.
[12]. Schein, V. E. (1973). The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics. Journal of applied psychology, 57(2), 95.
[13]. Schein, V. E. (1975). The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics among female managers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 340–344.
[14]. Rosenwasser, S. M., & Dean, N. G. (1989). Gender role and political offi ce: Effects of perceived masculinity/femininity of candidate and political office. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, 77–85
[15]. Eagly, A. H. (2007). Female leadership advantage and disadvantage: Resolving the contradictions. Psychology of women quarterly, 31(1), 1-12.
[16]. Salim Ali, S. (2020). Women Participation and Representation in Politics and Governance in Zanzibar.
[17]. Huston, T. (2016). How women decide. HMH.
[18]. Helgesen, S. (2011). The female advantage: Women's ways of leadership. Currency.
[19]. Cantor, D.W., & Bernay,T. (1992). Women in power: The secrets of leadership. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
[20]. Osland, J. S., Snyder, M. M., & Hunter, L. (1998). A comparative study of managerial styles among female executives in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. International Studies of Management & Organization, 28(2), 54-73.
[21]. Tucker, M. L., McCarthy, A. M., & Jones, M. C. (1999). Women and men politicians: are some of the best leaders dissatisfied?. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
[22]. Conger, J. A., Kanungo, R. N., Menon, S. T., & Mathur, P. (1997). Measuring charisma: dimensionality and validity of the Conger-Kanungo Scale of charismatic leadership. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 14, 290–302
[23]. Kanungo, R. N., & Conger, J. A. (1992). Charisma: Exploring new dimensions of leadership behaviour. Psychology and Developing Societies, 4(1), 21-37.
[24]. Wasike, B. (2019). Is She Charismatic or is She Not? Examining Hillary Clinton’s Charismatic Rhetoric During the 2016 Presidential Race. Women's Studies, 48(2), 129-145.
[25]. Hazarika, B. (2015). Voting Behavior in India and its Determinants. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), Volume 20, Issue 10, Ver. IV (Oct. 2015), PP 22-25. Retrieved on April 9, 2018.
[26]. Fiedler, F. E. (1964). A contingency model of leadership effectiveness. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 149-190). Academic Press.
[27]. Haslam, S. A., & Ryan, M. K. (2008). The road to the glass cliff: Differences in the perceived suitability of men and women for leadership positions in succeeding and failing organizations. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(5), 530-546.
[28]. Fridkin, K. L., & Kenney, P. J. (2009). The role of gender stereotypes in US Senate campaigns. Politics & Gender, 5(3), 301-324.
[29]. House, R. J., & Howell, J. M. (1992). Personality and charismatic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 3(2), 81-108.
[30]. Williams, E. A., Pillai, R., Lowe, K. B., Jung, D., & Herst, D. (2009). Crisis, charisma, values, and voting behavior in the 2004 presidential election. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(2), 70-86.
[31]. Pillai, R., & Williams, E. A. (1998). Does leadership matter in the political arena? Voter perceptions of candidates' transformational and charismatic leadership and the 1996 U.S. presidential vote. The Leadership Quarterly, 9, 397−416.
[32]. Conger, J. A., & Kanungo, R. N. (1994). Charismatic leadership in organizations: Perceived behavioral attributes and their measurement. Journal of organizational behavior, 15(5), 439-452.
[33]. "Samia Suluhu Hassan - Tanzania's New President". 2022. BBC News.
[34]. Mutembei, K. B. (2012). Gender Analysis of the HIMA Project, Zanzibar. CARE International.
[35]. Brain, J. L. (1978). Down to gentility: Women in Tanzania. Sex Roles, 4(5), 695-715.
[36]. Ikulu ya Tanzania. (1977). Constitution Of The United Republic Of Tanzania
[37]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. (2008). Afrobarometer Round 4:The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Tanzania.Afrobarometer
[38]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. (2005). Afrobarometer Round 3:The Quality of Democracy and Governance in Tanzania.Afrobarometer
[39]. Women’s Rights and Leadership Forums. (2013). ADVANCING THE LAND RIGHTS OF PASTORALIST WOMEN IN NORTHERN TANZANIA.
[40]. International Labour Organization. (2008). Good Practices on Social Protection and Coping Strategies used by Low Income Women Workers in the Informal Economy in Zanzibar to Mitigate Against Social and Economic Risks.
[41]. Verona Groverman, Catherine Jura Sentamu. (2011). Women Empowerment in Zanzibar project End-term Evaluation.
[42]. Tripp, A. M. (2017). Women and politics in Africa. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.
[43]. Human Rights Watch. (2002). THE BULLETS WERE RAINING.
[44]. Mnyika, J. (2010). „Mchakato wa Uboreshaji Daftari na Uhakiki wa Wapiga Kura‟. Mwananchi News (Dar es Salaam), 10. (in Swahili)
[45]. Matheson, A. (2012). Maridhiano: Zanzibar's remarkable reconciliation and Government of National Unity. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 6(4), 591-612.
[46]. Kildal, A. T. B. O. (2016). Come Together: The Effects of Power-Sharing on Peace and Democracy in Zanzibar (Master's thesis).
[47]. Ryan, M. K., Haslam, S. A., Hersby, M. D., & Bongiorno, R. (2011). Think crisis–think female: The glass cliff and contextual variation in the think manager–think male stereotype. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(3), 470.
[48]. Ryan, M. K., & Haslam, S. A. (2007). The glass cliff: Exploring the dynamics surrounding the appointment of women to precarious leadership positions. Academy of management review, 32(2), 549-572.
[49]. Kasomo, D. (2012). Factors affecting women participation in electoral politics in Africa.
[50]. Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 1 – 26.
[51]. Women Fund Tanzania Trust. (2021). THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT CELEBRATES 100 DAYS OF HER EXCELLENCY MADAM PRESIDENT SAMIA SULUHU HASSAN IN OFFICE.
Cite this article
Zhang,M. (2023). The First Female President in Tanzania: Analyzing Samia Suluhu Hassan's Electoral Success. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,7,201-213.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Business and Policy Studies
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).