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-party era when Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda marginalized everyone's 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, their families, and their 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 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.
Rose Chibambo began organising women in Zomba in 1952 to protest against colonial rule and at independence in 1964 was the only woman member of parliament, serving as parliamentary secretary to Kamuzu Banda. She is widely described as Malawi's first female cabinet minister. She was dismissed during the Cabinet Crisis of 1964, spent 30 years in exile in Zambia, and her portrait appears on the K200 bank note. Her account of her life was published in 2019 as Lomathinda: Rose Chibambo Speaks, a book length interview by Timwa Lipenga.
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.
Vera Chirwa, Malawi's first woman lawyer, and her husband Orton Chirwa, were arrested on 24 December 1981 and sentenced to death by Banda's government., she spent 12 years in prison before her release in January 1993. After her release she founded two rights organisations, Malawi CARER and Women's Voice.Jaspers, Klaartjie. "From prisoner to presidential candidate: an interview with Vera Chirwa of Malawi." Sister Namibia, vol. 16, no. 3, July 2004, pp. 12+. Gale Academic OneFile, Accessed 26 Sept. 2026.
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.
Women in science and scholarship Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu, who described the Cretaceous crocdilyform Malawisuchus in 1997 was among the first Malawian women to earn a doctorate in palaeontology. Mercy Kazima, a professor of mathematics education at the University of Malawi has worked with the University of Stavanger on a Norwegian-funded project to improve mathematics teacher education in Malawi.
Malawian women have led the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians. The Theologian Isabel Apawo Phiri became it general coordinator at its 2002 meeting in Addis Ababa, and was succeeded at its meeting in Cameroon by another Malawian, Fulata Moyo.Helen Labeodan, "Revisiting the legacy of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians today: A lesson in strength and perseverance", Verbum et Ecclesia 37(2), 2016 Rachel NyaGondwe Fiedler received her doctorate from the University of the Free State in 2017 with a history of the Circle from 1989 to 2007, published by Mzuni Press.
Lipenga, a lecturer in French at Chancellor College (University of Malawi), co-founded Makewana's Daughters, a digital forum for Malawian women writers.
Women in environment and agriculture Gloria Majiga-Kamoto received the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa for her campaign to enforce Malawi's ban on single-use plastics.
Anita Chitaya, a smallholder farmer and community organiser in Mzimba District, is the subject of Raj Patel's award winning documentary, The Ants and the Grasshopper (2021), which follows her journey to the United States to raise awareness of climate change's effects on Malawian Farmers. Chitaya is a community promoter with Soils, Food and Healthy Communities (SFHC) a farmer-led agroecology organisation based in Ekwendeni. SFHC began in 2000 as a pilot project with 30 farmers, led by Esther Lupafya, and Canadian researcher Rachel Bezner Kerr. After interviews with participating families revealed domestic violence and unequal division of farm labour, the project added gender-equity work to its farming trials.
Forester, Dr Tonthoza Uganja founded Sustainable Farming Solutions in 2019, a land restoration enterprise that trains rural women farmers in agroforestry, and received the Schlumberger Foundation Impact Prize in 2026 in recognition of her work.
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.
Malawi passed a law banning child marriage in 2015. The activist Memory Banda campaigned for the law with the Girls Empowerment Network, whose writing workshops collected girls' testimonies published as I Will Marry When I Want To! Banda has said the law remains a major challenge because of deeply held traditional beliefs.
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.