Celebrating Women At Villa Bluu

IWD2022 is all about breaking the bias and here at Villa Bluu we strive every day to achieve this. When we first started out hiring staff for the Villa, we didn’t take into consideration if the person applying for the job was a man or a woman. We had the attitude; we simply hire the best person for the job. Through the hiring process, we also tried to not exclude men for positions that tended to be dominated by women, like in housekeeping for example. There is always trial and error when building a team but the final result is a strong team of women. We also have some great guys working at Villa Bluu who work equally alongside the women in the Villa Bluu Team.

Our Team

Our team at Villa Bluu is made up of 90% women. Our kitchen is fully staffed by women. They have all explained, with different experiences, how difficult it can be, being a woman in the kitchen. In hotels, the kitchen is normally run by men. Each of them has at one time or another been sexually harassed. Sometimes this has even led to dismissal due to not accepting the advances. Furthermore, our manager explained that as a woman working in a hotel, some men see you as a prostitute. Which I must say really surprised as the hotel industry is a well-respected industry to work in.

Tanzanian Government and Equality

While the government has adopted policies that advance equality these however are yet to align with the reality of the figures. There is currently a policy called the National Development Vision that among other things states that by 2025 Tanzania should attain gender equality and empowerment in socio-economic, political and cultural sectors by the end of 2025. That is not far away and as they say the proof is in the pudding. We are all looking forward to seeing these policies implemented.

Social Inequality

In Tanzania, as in many parts of the world there are still issues with child marriage, female genital mutilation, violence against women, illiteracy, poverty and social exclusion. For this reason, it is also important to have organisations that protect women. For example, TAWEA, Tanzanian Women Empowerment in Action. This organisation represents women in three main areas, ignorance, poverty and disease. This includes the area of sexual and reproductive health, gender based sexual violence and inequality bringing poverty. 

As I said we look forward to the necessary changes that have been promised by the government. These are essential developments that must be made to give woman a chance to grow. We at Villa Bluu, at least in our small way, ensure gender equality and are breaking the bias.