Gender differences in perceptions of “joint” decision-making about spending money among couples in rural Tanzania

Family and cultural contexts can constrain the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions designed to improve the health and wellbeing of women and their children. Unequal power relationships within the household may underlie the failure of many programs targeting women to achieve their intended impact. To reduce these unequal power dynamics within the households, many programs or interventions aim to both assess and improve the gender dynamics between husbands and wives within the household. Decision-making is one important facet of these dynamics and has been linked to health outcomes for women and children. However, household decision-making is rarely observed and often difficult to capture. This study aimed to use qualitative research to further understand one aspect of decision-making, namely on how to spend money. In two regions of Tanzania, we used surveys and interviews to explore different perspectives on spending and allocation of resources among 58 couples in rural farming households. While many men and women initially reported that they made decisions jointly, most women stated they would often concede if there was a disagreement or argument around spending. These results highlight the different perceptions of joint decision-making between men and women. We compared these results to survey responses on decision-making and found differences within and between couples across interview and survey responses. Based on the differences in qualitative and survey responses within couples and how they reported dealing with disagreement, our study found households were on a spectrum from no cooperation in decision-making to full cooperation. Our results highlight challenges for assessing decision-making on spending and ultimately improving these decision-making dynamics within the household. These challenges are especially important for maternal and child behavioral change and provide insights on why many interventions aimed at improving women’s decision- making power on money may not reach their full potential.