Women in Malawi

Women in Malawi have participated in the transformation of the country. In the pre-colonial period, principles of matrilineality organized social structures within many communities in Malawi, affording women rights to land, property, products of labor, and children, and influence in group decision-making. Malawi gained a reputation as a country that is resistant to change when it comes to gender equality and women's empowerment. This was apparent in the one-partly era when Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda marginalized everyones access to power by maintaining a paternalistic approach. This included women’s issues. Women have nonetheless been resilient enough to stand up and speak up for themselves and their families and communities.

History

Precolonial and early colonial period

The most significant pre-colonial political formation in Malawi was the Maravi Confederacy, which emerged between the 15th and 16th centuries as a network of related Bantu-speaking people. These were the Chewa, Nyanja, Tumbuka, who acknowledged the supreme authority of a paramount chief known as the Karonga. The Karonga's capital at Mankhamba, strategically positioned near the southern end of Lake Malawi, served as the heart of a confederacy whose influence extended from the Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique to present-day Zambia, and from southern Tanzania to the Zambezi River valley.

The status, rights, and roles of women in Malawi have been in constant flux since at the least the mid-19th century. In the pre-colonial period, principles of matrilineality organized social structures within many communities in Malawi, affording women rights to land, property, products of labor, and children, and influence in group decision-making.

Patterns of increasing exclusion and endangerment of women continued beyond the mid-19th century after the slave trade was challenged. In the period immediately preceding colonial rule and also during the colonial period, women actively sought to maintain rights and influence through their involvement in Christian institutions, their appeal to courts, public protests, and through their subversive expression in songs, stories, and possession cults. In the late 1950s, during the anti-Federation struggle, the Women’s League performed songs and praise poems called “Kamuzu songs” that helped to create support for the leadership of Kamuzu Banda in the NAC and later in the Malawi Congress Party that developed from it

Among the Mang’anja of southern Malawi, women made decisions about what to grow and helped choose community leaders. For this, they were referred to as "King Makers." Land was distributed for women to use whether they were married, widowed, or never-married.

Women’s access to land for cultivation was not immediately impacted by colonial encroachment. Europeans allowed locals to access and use land on the condition that that they perform thangata; traditional cooperative labor that was adopted and transformed by European estate holders to extract labor from African tenants, in exchange for tenancy and rights to cultivate.

Late-colonial to post-independence period

In the late 1950s, during the anti-Federation struggle, the Women’s League performed songs and praise poems called “Kamuzu songs” that helped to create support for the leadership of Kamuzu Banda in the NAC and later in the Malawi Congress Party that developed from it. However, women’s roles in politics were narrowly restricted and primarily confined to supporting men.

Kamuzu Banda, the first president of the independent Malawi selected and controlled traditions to protect his own interest. He intended to empower women through a pseudo-traditional agenda: converting the traditional role of counselor-usually an uncle (Nkhoswe) in Chewa culture from the individual to the state level, rather than extending rights and gender equality through legislation. It was illegal for women to wear trousers until 1994.

21st-century development and the multiparty era

Although the multi-party era that began in 1994 promised and did bring change for women, there were also continuities with the Kamuzu Banda era. His successor Bakili Muluzi (president 1994–2004) continued a paternalistic approach to women including the practice of women dancing at political functions. Muluzi also often guaranteed loans for women and other favors in exchange for their loyalty. When Bingu wa Mutharika came to power in 2004, he also tried to appear as a champion for women. Mutharika often appropriated the moniker “Ngwazi II” and continued the practice of women dancing at political functions.

Women’s rights activists such as Seodi White, Jessie Kabwila, Sarai Chisala-Templehoff, and Paramount Chief Kachindamoto have improved the status of women. Kachindamoto championed gender equity in customary law by annulling over 2,500 child marriages under her jurisdiction.

Health and education

Education

24.4% of girls and 24.4% of boys complete lower secondary school in Malawi as of 2024 data. The female rate in Malawi is lower than both Sub-Saharan Africa and the low-income group.

The gap in adult literacy between men and women, 15.9, is larger than the gap of the Sub-Saharan Africa aggregate, 12.2.

Health and wellbeing

According to UNICEF, only 51% of women get the recommended four or more ANC visits during pregnancy. Twenty-nine percent of adolescents age 15-19 have begun bearing children with rural adolescents 31% and 21% for urban adolescents.

Malawi’s maternal mortality ratio is considered one of the worst in the world at 439 deaths per 100,000 women and the majority of maternal and neonatal deaths occur during the first 48 hours after delivery.

Cultural and traditional practices

Initiation ceremony and puberty

Girls’ initiation rituals are far more commonly practiced in Southern Region than the other regions and also more common in rural areas than in urban areas. Boys’ initiation rituals are also more common in the South, but similarly prevalent in rural and urban areas. The most commonly reported positive aspects of initiation rituals are teaching about good behavior and social norms. Information on hygiene, health, and reproduction are also frequently reported as positive aspects. The most common activities at initiation rituals revolve around counselling, education, as well as teaching good manners and household skills. Sexual components are widely spread, especially in the South.

In the South, in more than 60% of villages the majority of respondents states that at least some girls participate in sexual initiation rituals.

Early and child marriages

Child marriage is prevalent according to the results of this survey, especially for females: 9% of the interviewed women married before the age of 15 while 42% got married before the age of 18 compared to their male counterparts at 1% and 6% respectively. Marriage below 15 is particularly widespread in the Southern region while marriage below 18 is highest in the Northern region. Child marriage is both an urban and rural phenomenon, but prevalence of child marriage among females in rural areas is higher than in urban areas. At a national level, 6% of Malawians reported that all, many, or few girls in their villages take part in the Fisi practice. This is a practice where girls are visited by a hired adult male who performs sexual intercourse with them to conclude the sexual initiation.

Other harmful practices

Wife inheritance, a tradition in which a deceased man’s brother or close relation marries his widow family continues. This happens in societies across the three regions of the country.

Another practice in Malawi, is "widow cleansing", a traditional practice in which a widow is expected to have sexual relations, "in order to cleanse her".

Women in political leadership

Women’s political participation presents an opportunity to represent the views of a larger group at the Ward and Constituency level, as they tend to interact more frequently with the wider community, in comparison to their male counterparts.

Apart from being the Kings Makers, women in the Republic of Malawi have served traditional roles as rainmakers, who led prayers to bring rains when droughts or famine hit, but that is not all, politically, for the past 17 years women in Malawi have risen to become, chairpersons of the electoral commission, Justice Anastasia Msosa, Justice Dr. Jane Ansah, and the current(2026) electoral commissioner, Justice Annabel Mtalimanja. Malawi has also had a female president Dr. Joyce Banda, who previously served as vice president and the currently Malawi has another female vice president Justice Dr. Jane Ansah. The country has also had female leaders in parliament like the deputy speaker of national assembly-Esther Mcheka Chilenje and then Catherine Gotani Hara who became Parliament's Speaker.

Women representation

Malawi has had an increase in the number of women leaders. In the Malawi Police Services there have been two female Inspector Generals, Mary Nangwale and Merlyn Yolamu, and in sports, the national netball team, "The Queens", led by players such as Connie Mhone, Mary Waya, and Mwayi Kumwenda, have helped raise the profile of Malawi. Female footballers like Tabitha and Temwa Chawinga who play in the United States of America and France are well known Malawian women. In August 2018, Rosemary Kanyuka was appointed to be Malawi's Law Commissioner and she received a salary, a fuel and air travel allowance and medical aid for both her and her family. The President was trying to appoint more women and the press spoke of her appointment as part of a "feminocracy" because he had appointed Annabel Mtalimanja to lead the Malawi Electoral Commission, Fiona Kalemba was the Clerk of Parliament, Gertrude Hiwa was Solicitor General and Wandika Phiri was the Prisons Chief Commissioner.

Women representation in parliament fell from 23 percent in 2019 to 21 percent in 2025. Women’s parliamentary representation rose from 5% in 1994 to 24% in 2009 but has since (2025) plateaued.

Barriers to political participation

The cost of participation in politics for women in Malawi remains high. Despite on-going calls for increased female representation at all levels of government, the country continues to grapple with the low involvement of women in politics. During a pre-election period, for at least two years or longer, candidates go around communities positioning themselves for party primary elections distributing money to party cadres who form the primary elections’ electoral college. Village chiefs, church leaders and even ordinary citizens expect to receive money or gifts from the candidates. How much you give sometimes determines how are received in the communities and may determine the outcome of the elections. Traditionally Malawian society expects women to be submissive and docile. When women challenge these norms by speaking out or taking a stand, they are often met with critical labels and subjected to name-calling. A HIVOS report on participation of women leaders in Malawi said, "Women face various challenges to active participation in politics including deeply entrenched patriarchal systems, gender norms, political violence, corruption, intimidation, hatred and character assassination."

Research also suggests that social media has also made it very easy for the spread of fake news. Often times, the authors of such articles do not use their real identities, hence it becomes difficult to follow up on the situation. The study observed that cyberbullying mainly influenced by patriarchy.

Advocacy and campaigns

Civil society seems the most viable option for speeding up women’s participation in the political process and the legal sphere. A coalition of gender rights advocates calls for legislative quotas to correct the political imbalance. The Gender Coordination Network argues that change requires bold legal reforms.

The fight for gender equality in Malawi is not only led by transnational feminists Networks like Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) but by local NGOs like the Women’s Legal Resource Centre (WOLREC) that have sought to address gender inequality, with specific emphasis on raising local voices against issues affecting women in Malawi.

National Gender Policy

The most important sectoral policy is the National Gender Policy, whose purpose is to strengthen gender mainstreaming and women empowerment at all levels in order to facilitate attainment of gender equality and equity in Malawi.

Malawi’s initial effort at a National Gender Machinery was with the creation of the National Commission on Women in Development (NCWID) in 1987. Efforts of the NCWID resulted in law reviews and the development of a National Platform of Action for implementing the Beijing Platform of Action. In the 1990s Malawi established a Ministry for Women, Children and Community Services (MoWCCS). Malawi has embraced both the Gender and Development (GAD) model and gender mainstreaming approaches. For example, in 2004, the Ministry for Women, Children and Community Services (MoWCCS) was renamed to Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development (MoGCCD) to embrace the GAD approach. The new Deceased Estates Act protects the spouse’s and children’s share in the estate. Moreover, the Act makes property grabbing an offense, liable for a fine of MK1 Million or imprisonment for up to three years. Currently being implemented include: the National Gender Program; National Gender Policy; National Response to Combat Gender-based Violence; and a 50/50 campaign to increase representation of women in Parliament and Local Government.