ABSTRACT
This chapter draws primarily on interviews with leaders of key women's associations and female political leaders and case studies of eight women's organizations involved primarily in local gender-based conflicts. It focuses on interviews with women involved in over 150 formal and informal women's associations in Kampala and Jinja. The chapter also focuses on Uganda because the research in that country dealt specifically with the political impact of women's organizations. References to Tanzania, which are not as extensive as the references to Uganda, are nevertheless important from a comparative point of view because of the many noticeable similarities. They are based on fieldwork conducted in Tanzania between 1987 and 1988 that focused on the informal economy but also looked at its organizational dimensions. The chapter includes interviews with national leaders of women's associations like the Women's Union (UWT) and its small projects branch (SUWATA), the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and other such formal groups.
