Abstract

This paper explores the movements, meanings and potential movements of men and women as they seek to secure food resources. Using a gendered mobilities framework, we draw on 66 in-depth interviews in the Kongwa district of rural Tanzania, illustrating how people move, their motivations and understandings of these movements, the taboos, rituals, and cultural characteristics of movement that hold implications for men and women and their food security needs. Results show that male potential mobility and female relative immobility is a critical factor in understanding how mobility affects food security differentially for men and women. We identify the links between mobilities and the development of social capital, particularly amongst men. We also illustrate problems with greater integration of women into the agricultural sector when these women risk stigma and censure from the increased physical movement that this integration requires. Implications from this study are examined in light of gender transformative approaches to agricultural interventions in sub-Saharan Africa.