Influence, not optics: Why gender parity requires design

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s conversation on women in leadership is shifting — from counting seats to questioning power.

At the heart of that shift is the upcoming The Citizen Rising Woman 2026 Webinar Series, convened by Mwananchi Communications Limited under its flagship brand The Citizen, in partnership with She Evolves. Under the 2026 theme “Give to Gain,” the high-level dialogue titled From Representation to Reform challenged a familiar comfort zone: representation without redesign.

The session sets the tone for the Rising Woman 2026 Gala Dinner scheduled for March 6, 2026 at the Super Dome in Masaki. But beyond the ceremony, the message was clear — incremental progress is no longer enough.

Global Authority’s chief executive Ms Modesta Mahiga, argued that leadership progression for women cannot rely on goodwill or isolated opportunities.

“Organisational structures and systems must be deliberately designed to progress women,” she noted, stressing that structured pathways — not informal encouragement — are what translate potential into leadership outcomes.

Her remarks framed the broader discussion: inclusion must be engineered.

Institute of Directors Tanzania (IoDT)’s chief executive Mr Said Baraka Kambi, took the argument further. Boards, he said, do not operate on empowerment rhetoric — they operate on allocation of power.

“We don’t want to talk about representation; we want to talk about influence,” he said. “A seat at the table is necessary, but not sufficient.”

For Kambi, symbolism is the danger. The real question, he suggested, is whether women are shaping the agenda or merely occupying space.

“Are women capable of moving the table?” he asked, pointing to entrenched power patterns that often rotate within familiar circles, even when representation appears diverse on paper.

His call was not for aspiration, but for design — structured succession planning, governance reforms, and systems that prevent leadership from recycling within the same networks.

Country Manager and Lead for the Women Creating Wealth Programme at the Graça Machel Trust,  Ms Anabahati Mlay echoed the urgency of systemic design.

“Inclusion must be intentional and structured,” she said. “We need programs and systems that drive progression.”

Preparing women as change agents, she argued, requires more than access. It requires readiness technical competence, strategic positioning, and institutional backing that allows women not only to enter leadership spaces but to transform them.

The conversation repeatedly returned to preparation: how organizations can build pipelines and how women can strategically position themselves for influence rather than visibility alone.

Group Home Broadband Product Lead at Airtel Africa, Ms Hilda Nakajumo, grounded the discussion in practical leadership behaviour.

Her call was personal and institutional: give time, give access, give visibility, give trust.

“When we share power, we gain,” she said, framing mentorship and sponsorship not as charitable acts but as strategic investments. Organisations benefit from skilled personnel, innovation, and diversity of thought when leadership pipelines are intentionally cultivated.

Ms Nakajumo distinguished between mentorship and sponsorship. Mentorship guides. Sponsorship advocates — someone who takes your CV and recommends you for roles aligned with your strengths.

She also underscored the responsibility on emerging leaders.

“Skills can be taught; attitude cannot,” she said, noting that trust is earned in environments where leaders create psychological safety and subordinates demonstrate reliability and growth.

Gender parity, she emphasised, does not happen by accident. It is the outcome of deliberate planning, succession frameworks, and leadership cultures that reward capability.

“When women rise, businesses grow faster and societies become stronger,” she said.

The webinar signals a deeper recalibration in Tanzania’s corporate and governance spaces. The debate is no longer about how many women are in the room, but whether institutional systems allow them to influence outcomes.

Under the “Give to Gain” banner, the Rising Woman 2026 platform is positioning leadership as a reciprocal model — where established leaders invest authority and access, and emerging leaders respond with competence and strategic contribution.

As the Gala Dinner approaches, the tone has been set: reform requires design. Representation may open the door, but influence rewrites the architecture.

And for Tanzania’s next generation of women leaders, the question is no longer whether they are present — but whether the system is ready to let them lead.