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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
For a long time, women's work has not been valued very highly, mainly because of the belief in many cultures that whatever is undertaken in the house is a natural duty and/or act of love for the husband and the family. Indeed, in many parts of subsistence Africa, the heavy duties performed by women in preparing, planting, weeding, and harvesting crops are regarded as ‘domestic’ commitments and hence not serious labour. This situation can hardly be said to be characteristic of only ‘non-developed’ societies, in which patriarchal attitudes are still dominant, since according to a 1985 study, although women make up more than half of the world's population and do two-thirds of the world's working hours, they receive only one-hundredth of the worl'ds property. This state of affairs, however, is now changing, because as women everywhere unite in order to achieve legal, social, and economic equality, the value attached to their work naturally increases.
1 See Sivard, Ruth Lege., Women…a World Survey (Washington, D.C., 1985),Google Scholar quoted by Kabeberi, J. W., ‘Women and Property in Kenya’, Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi, 1987.Google Scholar
2 Tanzania, Government Paper No. 1 of 1969, para. 5.
3 Mwanza High Court, Civil Appeal No. 181 of 1973, unreported.
4 Dar es Salaam High Court, Civil Appeal No. 7 of 1974, unreported.
5 Law Reports of Tanzania (Dar es Salaam), 1976, No. 48.
6 Dar es Salaam High Court, Matrimonial Cause No. 6 of 1977, unreported.
7 Law Reports of Tanzania, 1977, No. 55.
8 Extracted from a paper by SirNewbold, Charles, University College, Dar es Salaam, 1969.Google Scholar
9 Dar es Salaam High Court, Civil Appeal No. 10 of 1980, unreported.
10 Dar es Salaam Court of Appeal, Civil Appeal No. 9 of 1983, as reported in Tanzania Law Reports (Dar es Salaam), 1983, No. 6.Google Scholar
11 Ibid.
12 Rwezaura, B. A., ‘Division of Matrimonial Assets Under the Tanzania Marriage Law’, in Verfassung und Recht in Übersee (Hamburg), 17, 1984, pp. 177–93.Google Scholar
13 Kapinga, W. B. L., in Law Reform of Tanzania Bulletin (Dar es Salaam), I, 1987.Google Scholar
14 Justice Lugakingira, in Dodoma High Court, Matrimonial Cause No. 1 of 1982, unreported.
