Gender mainstreaming in
Julie Newton[1],
Wellbeing in Developing Countries ESRC Research Group[2]
Abstract
In spite of the growing recognition that ‘gender’
matters amongst development practitioners and institutions which have
translated into efforts to ‘mainstream gender’, there has been an overall
persistence and sometimes aggravation of gendered inequalities. This paper
explores these contradictions in the context of
1. Introduction
The Beijing
Platform of Action (1995) was hailed a significant victory for feminists
globally, signalling universal recognition of the importance of bringing gender
centre stage within the development agenda. The term ‘gender mainstreaming’ was
subsequently introduced as the key strategy for achieving gender equality
resulting in a proliferation of governments, national and international
bilateral organisations and NGOs championing it as an essential development
objective. Ten years on, a recent review of progress on the commitments made in
the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action presents an ambivalent record of
progress and a general atmosphere of discontent and disillusionment (Molyneux
& Razavi, 2005). In spite of progress for women globally on a number of
development indicators, there has been an overall persistence and sometimes
aggravation of gendered inequalities (Molyneux & Razavi, 2005). These are
particularly pronounced within
The paper begins
by drawing on a variety of secondary sources to provide a brief summary of how
women in
2. Gendered inequalities in
Women comprise approximately 65% of the informal sector and provide 60% of the total agricultural labour (ADB, 2004). In addition, they perform a key role in maintaining and managing the household through their responsibilities for reproductive activities such as food preparation, health and hygiene and childcare. Women perform longer working days than men, yet lack access to modern technologies that would alleviate their tasks since these tend to be appropriated by men. Much of their time is spent in walking long distances to fetch water, collect fuelwood, and preparing food through labour intensive tasks (e.g. milling flour). In spite of this key role in the Ethiopian economy and household welfare, they experience persistent inequality and discrimination. Women are culturally regarded as inferior to men and are marginalised by hazy legal rights and male biased institutions and markets which ignore the needs of women farmers (Tadesse, 2001).
Although there
has been a national improvement in some welfare indicators such as education
where national primary gross enrolment in grades 1-4 increased from 30% in
1994-1995 to 83% in 2000-2001 (World Bank, 2005), women consistently perform
poorly in measures of education, mortality rates, health and other key social
and economic indicators. For example,
3. Gender mainstreaming in
Gender mainstreaming is used to describe both the process of institutionalising gender equality within the development context (Goetz, 1997) and the strategy of assessing the effects of policies on women and men through gender planning (Saunders, 2002; Bell et al, 2002; UNDP, 2000, 2003; Byrne et al, 1996; UN, 1997).
Under the
influence of Gender and Development (GAD)[4]
discourses, gender mainstreaming is interpreted as seeking to produce
“transformatory processes and practices that will concern, engage and benefit
women and men equally by systematically integrating explicit attention to
issues of sex and gender into all aspects of an organisation’s work” (Woodford-Berger,
2004:66). This redirected attention away from increasing women’s participation
towards looking for ways to transform the development agenda itself.
There is a general consensus that gender equality concerns can be mainstreamed in two interdependent ways: integrationist and transformative or agenda setting (Jahan, 1995; Mukhopadhyay, 2004; Kanji, 2003). An ‘integrationist’ approach focuses on the supply side (or technical side) of GM by ensuring that “gender equality concerns are integrated in the analysis of problems faced by the particular sector” which is then used to inform policy and practice using targets that are measured using a range of sophisticated monitoring and evaluation tools, frameworks and checklists (Mukhopadhyay, 2004: 96). The latter stem from the rigorous academic and theoretical background of GAD advocates who intended to strengthen technical[5] capacity to enforce the incorporation of gender equality concerns into all aspects of development policy and practice (Mukhopadhyay, 2004).
In contrast, the ‘transformative’ approach focuses on changing the development agenda itself by creating the demand for change with the introduction of women’s concerns in relation to their position[6]. This involves a deeper understanding of the context in which this change is to be enforced such as state-society relationships, political society characteristics and the influence of international development and financial institutions on policy making and practice (Mukhopadhyay, 2004). This moves GM beyond a technical exercise to include a political process whereby agendas, institutions and organisations are changed; analysis shifts towards relations of power and inequality rather than gender roles; and intervention is broadened beyond projects to include programmes, partnerships, policy processes and agencies themselves (Kanji, 2003).
In response to the
glaring inequalities highlighted in the previous section, the government of
Before more recent policy documents are discussed, it is important to note the Derg regime (1974-1991) did make efforts to preach the goals of women’s emancipation through its socialist ideologies. These messages were spread through Revolutionary Ethiopian Women’s Associations (REWA) whose overarching goal was to raise the economic and political position of women (Pankhurst, 1992). The official propaganda of REWA stated that its aims were to:
· To propagate to women the theory of scientific socialism with a view to raising their political consciousness and cultural standards
· To prepare women to occupy their appropriate position in society and to participate actively in productive social activities
· To make every effort to ensure that the rights of women as mothers are recognised and they, as well as their children, are well cared for
·
To liberate women from
political, economic and social dependence and prepare them to join hands with
their class allies and fully participate in the struggle to build socialist
Although REWA did have a significant role in raising women’s awareness, it had limited success in implementing these rights in part because of the authoritarian nature of the political regime (Michael, 2000). Pankhurst (1992) notes how their effectiveness was limited to the level of rhetoric since they lacked real power and were plagued by administrative inefficiency. Nevertheless, it did set the scene for the new government to take on the task of gender mainstreaming in the context of growing emphasis in the international arena of the importance of integrating gender into the development agenda.
The Ethiopian National Policy on Women (1993) was an important first step towards mainstreaming gender. The main goal of the policy was to facilitate the conditions for equality between women and men. To this end, it demanded intervention to:
· Mainstream women into existing laws, regulations and customary practices to allow women to participate in decision making structures
· Coordinate and incorporate women’s issue in all government programmes and policies at all levels
· Change discriminatory attitudes towards women and girls
· Promote research and awareness in all areas concerning women’s development and equity.
Of far greater importance was how it stimulated plans for implementation through the creation of gender mainstreaming infrastructure to institutionalise the political and socio-economic rights of women. These took the form of a Women’s Affair Office (WAO) under the Prime Minister's Office; Women Affairs Departments (WADs) located in each line ministry; Regional Women’s Bureaus (RWBs) at the regional administration level; and a women’s coordination and desk officer at the Zonal and Woreda level. The overall responsibility of the WAO is to coordinate and implement all aspects of the National Policy for Women at national, regional and sectoral level. In other words, it is the main body responsible for mainstreaming gender throughout the country. The WADs are responsible for addressing gendered inequities in their particular sector and are supposed to liaise closely with the WAO. In comparison, the RWBs, who are accountable to their respective Regional Administrative Council, are responsible for gender mainstreaming at the regional level. The zonal and woreda level desk officers work more closely at the community level to identify and address gender needs. They also play an active role in implementing various gender related programmes and projects. The detailed responsibilities of these machineries are detailed in Table 1 below (ADB, 2004).
Table 1: Responsibility of gender machineries
|
Women’s Affairs Office
(WAOs) |
Women’s Affairs Departments
(WADs) |
Regional Women’s Bureau
(RWBs) |
|
Location: Prime Minister’s Office |
Location: 16 Line Ministries Accountable to line ministry and report to WAO. |
Location: Accountable to Regional Administrative Council |
|
Coordination, facilitation and monitoring of women’s
affairs activities at the national level |
Create favourable conditions for effective gender
mainstreaming and implementation of gender sensitive activities in their
particular sector |
Provide gender mainstreaming guidance to all Regional,
Zonal and Woreda level programmes and project interventions |
|
Initiate proposals for developing gender sensitive
policies as well as reviewing existing ones to ensure that gender is
mainstreamed |
Monitor progress and report to the WAO periodically
on challenges and constraints |
Identify gender mainstreaming and equity needs at all
levels in region |
|
To collect relevant data and information nationally
and sectorally in order to disseminate them as well as to undertake studies
on pertinent gender and women’s issues |
Ensure that gender is mainstreamed in all projects
and programmes within the authority of their respective sector and ministry |
Develop respective gender mainstreaming strategies
for the different technical and sectoral bureaus in the region |
|
To organise workshops, conferences and symposiums at
the national level to promote and raise awareness on women and gender issues
in the Country |
|
Initiate, undertake and disseminate critical research
and studies related to gender and women’s development issue within the
regional context |
|
To enable a conducive environment which will promote
women’s empowerment and equal participation |
|
To initiate and undertake gender mainstreaming and
awareness raising session at all
levels of region and across all sectors |
|
|
|
Create favourable conditions for implementation of
NPW and monitor various activities. Identify areas of concern base on needs
and priorities of each region and plan to achieve those goals |
Source: ADB (2004)
The efforts of
the WAO are also supported by a number of bilateral and multilateral agencies
that have played a greater role more recently in sharpening the commitments of
the National Policy for Women. These include the UN Interagency Working Group
on Gender consisting of gender focal points from all agencies and the Group for
the Advancement of Women (GAW) (later renamed the Donor Group on Gender
Equality). The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) is also
an important programme aimed at facilitating development more generally, but
gives specific emphasis to gender (Sida, 2003). Membership of GAW consists
primarily of bilateral and UN agencies together with some representatives from
various NGOs, EU, OAU, ILO and IOM. It has played a key role in moving forward
from the
In addition to
the National Policy for Women, the Ethiopian government’s commitment to gender
mainstreaming is explicit within the Ethiopian
Constitution (1995) which is the ‘supreme law of the land’. The
Constitution enshrines a commitment towards the equal rights of women with men
and recommends affirmative action to address past inequalities. Article 35 also asserts that women have the
right to land, equal rights in marriage, and the right to be protected from
harmful traditional practices (Demessie et al, 2004). It also reaffirms
The Constitution has provided an important foundation for further revisions of discriminatory laws. The new Family Law has been influential in amending discriminatory provision relating to marriage, divorce and the upbringing of children (NEWA, 2004; NEWA & EWLA, 2003). This process has been greatly assisted by the Ethiopian Women Lawyer’s Association (EWLA)[8]. The Family Law has succeeded in raising the legal age of marriage for girls from 15 to 18; asserted that the contract of marriage is between spouses and not between the family; maintained that any matrimonial property should be shared and that the husband must consult with his wife when making decisions concerning property. This has been followed by further revisions of the 1957 Penal Code which came into operation in 2005. This dealt specifically with addressing issues related to rape, abduction, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and abortion. One of its most significant changes is with regards to abduction. Now the act of marriage following abduction does not cancel the crime and the act of rape following abduction is still punished. In the past it was not considered a crime if the couple were married afterwards (EWLA, 2004). It has also made female genital mutilation illegal and introduced penalties for perpetrators. However, it has been criticised for failing to include provisions on sexual harassment in schools and workplaces; restraining orders against perpetrators wishing to pursue revenge and there are no provisions of psychological violence.
In parallel to these key laws and legislations, there have been a number of other key policy documents aimed at creating the conditions for sustainable development which have included some mention on provisions for gender equality. These include the Agricultural Development Led Industrialisation (ADLI) programme, the National Population Policy, the Education and Training Policy, Health Policy, Development Social Welfare Policy, Environmental Policy, Cultural Policy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment. It is beyond the remit of this paper to discuss this in detail and more information can be found in a report compiled by Haregewoin Cherinet and Emebet Mulugeta commissioned for Sida (2003).
The extent to which goals of gender equality are integrated within the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) is also a good indicator of commitment towards gender mainstreaming as they are the overall national strategy for reducing poverty. Ethiopia’s first PRSP called the Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme (SDPRP) (2002-2005) recognised gender as a crosscutting issue and made a clear commitment to gender equality in the context of the overall development strategy (Moritz & Musisi, 2004) as illustrated below:
“Core dimensions of poverty (opportunity,
capability, security/risk, and dis/empowerment) differ along gender lines, and
function to heighten the vulnerability of women. For these reasons, the
inclusion of gender in any effort to alleviate poverty is non-negotiable”
(SDPRP, 2002: 122)
In spite of these key policies and laws in place, there are loopholes. With regards to the SDPRP, there is no indicator for promoting the empowerment of women and gender equality within its overall matrix of indicators and targets for monitoring progress. Moreover, the performance indicators that do exist are gender neutral. A major constraint for the Constitution is that it recognises customary and religious laws relating to personal relations; these include marriage, divorce, property ownership child custody and inheritance adoption (Birke et al, 2002). This means that some of the progress made with the other laws are made void. Another key constraint concerns the separation of jurisdiction and authority between the federal and the regional state contained within the Constitution. Regional states have the power to enact family codes whereas the Federal state retains authority of all other areas of civil law. Constraints arise when regional Family Laws may include elements of customary practices that indirectly discriminate against women. As a result, many regions still practice the old Family Law where the husband is the head of the family and has the right to make all major decisions regarding property.
Indeed, many of the reports consulted for this summary stressed that having the appropriate laws and policies in place were no clear guarantee that their recommendations would be implemented. Indeed, there is still widespread evidence suggesting that FGM continues and that early marriage is prevalent in many areas (World Bank, 2005). A more fundamental constraint is the lack of awareness of women’s rights by women themselves. A recent study by EWLA on violence against women in Addis Ababa (2003-2004) notes that many forms of violence such as beating goes unreported because the women didn’t know that they could report; were ashamed or afraid to report; or felt that reporting would result in additional violence. A recent World Bank report (2005) also notes that different women have different abilities to report violence. For example, consultations with EWLA revealed the difficulties of bringing a rape case to court if the victim’s virginity is in doubt. As a result, EWLA is campaigning that non-virgins should be given equal consideration before the law as they are just as vulnerable to rape.
On the whole, the
majority of the reports consulted for this summary together with findings in
the WeD research concur that customary practices and the ideas of conforming to
cultural norms play a key role in reinforcing and maintaining gender inequalities
and are therefore a key obstacle to the implementation of gender sensitive
policies. They also conclude that although there is much rhetoric on women’s
rights and gender equality within policy, laws and regulations, little is done
in practice. Part of the explanation for the failure of translation of policy
into practice is due to a lack of awareness amongst women themselves and the
desire to conform to cultural norms. These difficulties are further compounded
by the very infrastructure delegated with the responsibility of gender
mainstreaming; and it is this constraint, when
addressed, which has the potential to transform gender relations for the
better.
The Women Affairs Office has the primary responsibility for creating a conducive environment for gender mainstreaming and monitoring progress. However, various reports indicated that the effectiveness of the women bureaus at the federal and regional levels were hindered by a number of factors (Sida, 2003; ADB, 2004; NEWA, 2005; World Bank/WAO, 1998). These include a lack of clear mandate and authority; poor institutional capacity and lack of capital budget (World Bank/ WAO, 1998). By far the greatest constraint concerns the issue of capacity, particularly in relation to staffing. Many of the delegated staff perform dual roles: they work for their particular line bureau and the women’s bureau. Often responsibilities in the former outweigh the latter. This is accompanied by lack of clear mandate and responsibility which is particularly acute for the WADs and is linked to an overall lack of accountability for gender issues. At the federal and regional level, Women Affairs machineries have a limited role in key decision making in policy and practice and are not even a member of the cabinet[9]. They therefore lack authority to enforce changes towards more gender sensitive intervention on other line Ministries in spite of the WADs in place. This explains why there are few national sector programmes including gender and few ministries that prepare gender mainstreaming guidelines Decentralisation has also served to marginalise gender issues by complicating the issue of accountability between Federal and Regional levels. Lack of staffing also limits the extent to which staff can liaise with other stakeholders engaged in gender mainstreaming as well as their interaction with communities on the ground. For example, there is little interaction with local based institutions such as iddirs (burial associations) to address these issues.
Another problem highlighted by a recent study conducted in preparation for National Action Plan on Gender was a lack of awareness of the key policies and laws affecting gender rights amongst the woreda officers and even the regional women bureaus to certain extent. This is the outcome of a lack of regular and context specific gender training of staff at all levels which inhibits the overall success of gender mainstreaming initiatives. A lack of adequate financial resources committed towards gender mainstreaming is another key constraint. This inhibits the ability to collect gender disaggregated data which is essential for monitoring progress. At the local level, it restricts the recruitment of staff and places transport constraints on woreda officers carrying out delegated responsibilities. Often, their activities are restricted to ‘organising women’ rather than conducting gender analysis and educating local women on their rights. This is compounded by an overall sense of demoralisation with gender mainstreaming related to how the WAO has been marginalised resulting in high staff turnover (NEWA, 2004). These problems are not uncommon and characterise many gender mainstreaming structures across the world. Indeed, Longwe (1997) characterises the tendency of gender policies to disappear within bureaucracy as the evaporation of gender policy within the ‘patriarchal cooking pot’.
The roots of these difficulties can be traced to the inherently political nature of the transformation that gender mainstreaming aims to achieve. As mentioned earlier, gender mainstreaming is a political project which requires a fundamental shift in the way that development intervention is implemented and this is why it is ultimately resisted. This resistance is embedded in the continuation of a policy making infrastructure which remains male-biased and patriarchal. There is a fear of the change in power balance between women and men which partly has its roots in people’s cultural attitudes to gender roles and relations. It is also partly a function of a lack of awareness, and more importantly an understanding of what gender mainstreaming entails. It is this bias, and the assumption that gender is a ‘woman’s issue’ that underpins the weak financial and human resource capacity of gender mainstreaming structures. It comes as no surprise that there is high staff turnover within these gender machineries (NEWA, 2004). Ultimately, this weak capacity perpetuates a vicious cycle because it hinders the authority of these structures to assert mechanisms of accountability. The result is that gender mainstreaming can be perceived as elusive and nebulous without a clear agenda for transformative action, thus producing diverse strategies to mainstream based on patchy understandings of what these processes are meant to achieve (Subrahmanian, 2004; Woodford-Berger, 2004 ).
Thus far, the evidence suggests that there have been consistent efforts to create the infrastructure and policies to commence an ‘integrationist’ approach to gender mainstreaming. However, to date, it appears that such efforts have been impeded by a number of reasons mainly due to weak capacity amongst the gender mainstreaming infrastructure. Nevertheless, some progress is being made to improve the effectiveness of an ‘integrationist’ approach. Although the former SDPRP has been criticised for failing to systematically mainstream gender throughout the whole strategy and not providing adequate gender disaggregated data on poverty indicators, it has had some positive outcomes. In particular, it has been instrumental in leading to improved dialogue between the Government of Ethiopia and donors resulting in various new structures to facilitate the implementation of the strategy. Of particular reference to gender mainstreaming was the creation of Joint Group on Gender Equality (JGGE) comprising government officials and donors and a Donor Group on Gender Equality (DGGE)[10]. The key function of these groups is to improve, coordinate and harmonise gender mainstreaming throughout government policies, programmes and projects, particularly the SDPRP (DGGE ToR, 2004). This has become particularly important towards developing a strategy to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The SDPRP together with the aforementioned groups has also stimulated a significant number of new initiatives aimed at translating the National Policy for Women and the various commitments to gender mainstreaming in other policies (e.g. SDPRP) into practice. These initiatives include the National Action Plan on Gender and Gender Budget Analysis, together with better gender-disaggregated reporting. These initiatives were underway towards the end of the SDPRP and were reincorporated into the second PRSP called the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) which will run for five years from mid 2005 to mid 2010.
The National Action Plan on Gender (NAP) was formulated specifically to put the commitments to gender mainstreaming scattered across the various policies into action (PASDEP, 2005). Specific objectives include:
Progress thus far is that a draft NAP has been completed and plans for implementation are underway. With regards to the Gender Budget Analysis, this is a response to the recognition that policy implementation can be approved through Government Budget. The aim of the initiative is to analyse pubic expenditure from a gender perspective, particularly how it has affected women and men as users of public services. Its ultimate goal is to allow government to use a budgetary process to address gender inequality.
These steps represent important progress towards an integrationist approach to gender mainstreaming which will kick-start the more transformative agenda of gender mainstreaming. However, time will be the ultimate test.
4. Gendered inequalities on the ground
How do these
initiatives to mainstream gender and overcome gender inequalities translate at
the grassroots at the level of household and individual? How does policy deal with the factors that
maintain unequal power relations? The following discussion draws on the
analysis of power and poverty by Bevan, Pankhurst and
4.1: Gendered
division of labour
The gendered division of labour is a key mechanism of reinforcing unequal relations between women and men. It legitimises the heavy workloads of women which are underpinned by relations of exploitation and domination by men (i.e. controlling power structure). The following quote reveals how ideas of ‘appropriate’ gendered behaviour are reinforced through gendered roles. Men are perceived as the decision makers, the ones who control assets, provide security for the household, participate in community affairs and gain respect for their responsibilities. In contrast, women are expected to perform a ‘double shift day’. They are seen as being primarily responsible for traditional female reproductive and domestic roles such as food preparation and childcare. A wife is responsible for fulfilling her husband’s every want. She should be demure and respectful of her culture and allow her husband to make the major decisions.
Wond (male) Head of
the household manage and control household resources; main rules are engaging
in farming and giving social and psychological security to household members;
main rights are respect from hh members, make contractual agreements, not doing
house activities which are the responsibility of women.
Set (female): main
responsibilities are child-caring, food preparation etc, fulfil whatever
husband needs; main rules are not to participate in local meetings which
includes males only (female response); treatment of husband, to respect the
culture, not to be talkative (male response) . Main rights – second head of household,
giving advice to her family (female response) preparation and distribution of
food to family members, respect from children. (Yetmen: WIDE2)
These norms are reinforced through community gatherings where women are expected to be absent or ‘quiet’ at community meetings to allow their husband’s to take an active role. These rules can be bent when husbands are absent, or when women are single and/or are part of an iddir (customary burial associations) or mahiber (association dedicated to a saint[14]).
Women are expected to
be confined on their houses and do household activities. They will only attend
outside events when their husbands are not around or they are single and have
their own iddir or mahiber. Women have equal right to own properties with men.
They can only sell or exchange something with the permission of their husbands.
(Yetmen)
Any resistance to this set formula is often perceived as disrespecting culture and religious upbringing, and is consequently severely frowned upon (particularly from the older generations). However, poorer women seeking a means of survival are faced with no choice but to take on labour which is seen as ‘shameful’ for women because it is not regarded as traditional female activities as illustrated below.
Adult females do not go to other rural areas
for work. But there are about 2/3 women, who are very poor, who work at Hamus
Gebeya (they prepare Katikala (alcoholic
distilled drink) four/six days a month). One of the respondent states that the
community consider it as shameful to go to rural area for work for adult female.
(Turufe Kecheme)
Young girls and boys are
socialised into these roles and unequal gender relations from and early age
through the careful guidance of their parents and religious upbringing.
Although there is a slight difference in gender roles amongst Christians and
Muslims (i.e. in that the Muslim girls are more restricted in what activities
they can take on), there appears to be agreement that a young girl’s
responsibility is to become proficient in carrying out ‘female activities’
within the sphere of the household.
Both
girls and boys should start working in the house at 3, as messengers from about
3 years of age and began working out side at 4. Boys should begin to go out in
the fields with fathers or shepherds in order to prepare them for work (at 4)
and at 6 they should start herding in assistance with elders at the age of 6
and independently at 7. Then hoeing, clearing crop fields, weeding, levelling
threshing floor as they grow 10. At 6 girls should be able to roast and boil
coffee, collect fire wood, fetch water, clean house and begin to make Injera,
Wat. (Dinki: Young Lives 1M Poor man)
Girls
should clean houses, make the fire, roast/boil coffee, collect fire wood, fetch
water and Christian girls should also herd animals and weed. Both Christian and
Muslim girls should completely manage to work all female activities at the age
of 10. (Dinki)
Increasingly, there is evidence suggesting
that both women and men are beginning to challenge these gender roles in
nuanced ways. For example, in our protocol data from Korodegaga we have a case
study of one man with 3 wives who supports his 15 year old daughter in her
education against her mother who wants her to get married. In Dinki, we have
another case where the male household was supportive of his children going to
school. However, because of labour shortage he had to retain his eldest son and
daughter to assist with household and agricultural tasks whilst the younger
children (including girls) went to school. This illustrates the complexity of
gender relations which are crosscut by the circumstances of the household.
More subtle variations in gender roles are
witnessed across religious denomination (whether you are Muslim or Christian),
ethnicity and class/wealth. The following quote from the Young lives protocol
in Dinki (a predominantly Muslim site) reveals how Christian Amhara girls are
taught to perform agricultural fieldwork skills in addition to traditional
female domestic tasks within the household.
They also appear to be more mobile then Muslim girls who tend to be
restricted in the places they can visit (e.g. markets). Religion crosscut by ethnicity also appears
to affect parent’s attitudes to education. Muslim Argoba parents tend to view
education as having a bad influence over their child’s “survival” whilst Amhara
Christian parents see education as a way of increasing economic opportunities
as illustrated below. However, it is important to note that the Argoba tend to
favour Muslim education which is different from secular education. So this
moves the question beyond the issue of having education or not, towards the type of education.
Muslim
and Christian parents have different views and practices as far as genderization
of skill learning Muslim Argoba believe that it is a religious duty that girls
should learn only home making work skills and remain in the house. But the
Amhara Christians believe that girls must learn important fieldwork skills too.
Thus both category parents revealed that unlike Muslims, Amhara girls equally
begin to be engaged in herding as boys.
The
Muslims never allow girls to go out to markets or other events where as
rich/middle Christians could assign some one to protect their girls if they go
out to festivals or markets.
The
two sub groups seem to maintain contrary values and attitudes to wards
religious and formal education from gender perspective and goal orientation. Argoba
Muslim parents highly value religious education as an appropriate means of
socializing children and it enables them to acquire the required behaviour as
their survival strategies. On the contrary they believed formal education will
have effect against their children's present or future survival in the
community. The Amhara/ Christians rather consider formal education as positive
survival/strategy against logically and nationally defined economic resource
problems. Although Amhara parents seem to agree with Muslims on misdirecting
effects of formal education in terms of behaviour, they value it in terms of
economic survival strategy. (Dinki: Young Lives 1M)
For young girls, this socialisation process
is an important means of preparing them in ‘housewifely duties’ to make them
good wives and mothers.
An
adolescent girl who does not fulfil all housewifely duties may not get married
and will be given the nickname geltu (lazy). (Yetmen)
Being a good wife and producing offspring (particularly boys) is crucial for affirming female identity. Women who produce sons are rewarded with praise and respect from husbands and other women since males are seen as being able to “defend themselves and their family better from any danger” whilst females are “easy victims for enemies”. For this reason, male infants receive more care and nourishment than female children. Only when the girls become of marriageable age, do they receive more attention and care from their mothers as it is important for her to find a husband who will provide an important source of support for the parents in their old age. Alternatively, when a mother has many children, she needs more female children to help her take care of the domestic household tasks.
There is a belief,
particularly among Orthodox Christians, that it is better to give birth to male
than female children. They believe that males can defend themselves and their
family better from any danger while females are easy victims for enemies. A
husband feels happiness when his wife gives birth to a son and the wife also
feels proud. The husband may kill a sheep or a goat for the wife who gave birth
to a son. When a son is born, women who gather in the house of the woman giving
birth make a thin loud clamour called ililta seven times, but only three
times if the child is female'. (Turufe Kecheme: WIDE1 1995)
Women and girls who fail to fulfil these gender norms, particularly those who do not produce children, are generally seen as failures and treated with disdain as illustrated below.
Even if the
husband may be infertile it is the woman who is blamed: she is labelled as beklo
(mule) and considered to be cursed. (Yetmen)
However, we do have a case in Dinki where the couple have not had children but seem happy and the husband treats his wife well; thus raising the importance of interrogating generalisations and recognising diversity.
4.2: The pregnancy/birth/infancy cycle
A key factor compounding women’s inequality that deserves being considered separately as a distinct dimension of the gendered division of labour in its own right is the biological role that women perform in society. If we look at this in power terms, it is an important means in which women’s bodies are dominated and exploited. A key finding of the research was that women’s childbearing and childrearing responsibilities and related needs were rarely recognised in prevailing discourses on gender relations. However, research by WeD Ethiopia in 20 rural WIDE[15] sites in 2004 summarised by Bevan (2004)[16] below revealed that women experienced difficulties in relation to infertility, pregnancy outside marriage, abortions, spontaneous miscarriages, pregnancy, delivery and infancy. These were further exacerbated by seasonal changes in food, cash and water availability, temperature, disease outbreaks and the timing of women’s agricultural labour.
Infertility was a key problem for rural women in
Much female infertility is caused by abortions and miscarriages often associated with child pregnancies (due to early customary marriages) and circumcision. Pregnancies outside of marriage are regarded as taboo, and many resort to abortion using unsafe methods such as malaria tablets or drinking bleach to avoid stigmatisation. Women who experience spontaneous miscarriages are blamed. Lack of the appropriate care (or ability to afford it) can lead to further complications and immense pain that can result in death or infertility.
The experience of pregnancy and delivery can also produce much suffering for women. Faced with the responsibility for other domestic tasks within the household, women struggle to reach a balance whilst dealing with the effects of pregnancy such as sickness, fatigue and pain. This is particularly difficult during times when agricultural work in the fields is crucial (e.g. weeding, sowing and harvesting). During times of drought, hunger can cause negative effects to the unborn child as they fail to attain adequate nutrition to develop. Female circumcision can produce considerable problems for the delivery of the child that can result in death for both the mother and infant.
Bevan notes that “a major maternal worry” is the health of the baby.
When an infant falls ill and traditional methods of healing fail, not all can
afford the costs of formal health facilities. Young children are also more
prone to droughts and disease epidemics. Because young boys are favoured over
girls, they tend to be fed more, making young girls particularly vulnerable.
In summary, Bevan outlines three key issues that create hardship for women: food and diet for mother and baby; work and time-use in relation to women’s’ multiple roles within the household; and maternal and baby illness and health care. The food and diet of both the mother and baby is crucial throughout the pregnancy infancy cycle. Their propensity to find enough food to survive (to avoid starvation) and find the right types of food to flourish (nutrition) is dependent on their physical location and relative wealth. Women’s’ multiple roles in the production and maintenance of the household together with their biological role as mother means that they have to find a delicate balance within their ‘double shift day’. Lastly, the pregnancy/infancy cycle is a particularly vulnerable time for mothers and babies that requires reliable preventive health measures and sufficient health care to mitigate pregnancy related illnesses. However much of this care is of poor quality, unaffordable or non existent.
The extent of acute and chronic suffering experience by mothers and babies during the pregnancy/infancy cycle is summarised in the table overleaf:
Table 2: Acute and chronic
suffering experienced by mothers and baby
|
Mothers
|
Babies |
|
Infertility Unwanted pregnancies Too many pregnancies Botched abortions Miscarriages Difficult pregnancies Illnesses during pregnancy Starvation and nutritional failures during
pregnancy Overwork during pregnancy Absence of, poor, or costly health
facilities during pregnancy Lack of care and support during pregnancy Difficult deliveries Absence of, poor or costly health
facilities during pregnancy Lack of care and support during pregnancy Difficult deliveries Absence of, poor, or costly health facilities
during delivery Post delivery complications Absence, of, poor or costly facilities for
new mother and baby Overwork once baby is born Starvation or nutritional failures whilst
breastfeeding Being responsible for the physical welfare
of the children, especially in times of famine Worry about feeding the family Worry about the health of their baby |
Nutritional failures while in the womb Problematic birth experiences Starvation or nutritional failures in the
first trimester Local diseases and illnesses Neglect which may be result of mothers
having to make ends meet in hunger periods or because the child is female
(i.e. due to cultural preference for boys) |
Source: Bevan (2004)
4.3: Marriage
The main purpose of marriage is to strengthen or establish new social capital networks by joining families, kin groups of clans. These networks become important sources of support at times of stress (famine or death of family) or labour during the key agricultural periods. Being married is important for a woman’s adult status and identity. Being unmarried risks being labelled a “failure”. However, the mechanisms through which couples are ‘married’, the actual experience of marriage, and the impact of ending marriage (through widowhood or divorce) play a profound role in entrenching and legitimising gendered inequalities.
The research revealed different marriage rules amongst the sites according to ethnicity and religion. Yet, all sites practice virilocal marriage residence rules where women are expected to move away form their parental village to that of the groom and often into or next to his parent’s home. The implication of this move is that a woman is often socially and geographically isolated form kin and friends. For the Oromo of Korodegaga (All Muslims) and Turufe Kecheme (mostly Muslims) and the Argobas of Dinki (all Muslims) bridewealth is often given to the wife’s family from the husband’s family. This can include cash or material items such as clothes or livestock to help support the birth of new children. Often there are strict rules about who one is able to marry and marriages are frequently arranged by parents. Within the research, there were many cases of young girls reporting that they would return home to find parents had arranged a marriage against their will. On the whole, women have little say in the matter as illustrated below.
Marriage
within a clan is forbidden; it is not an individual affair but the concern of
the clan – it unites two clans. Forms of marriage include marriage by purchase,
marriage by exchange, abduction, by consent of partners without parental
agreement, marrying dead sister's husband, marrying dead husband's brother,
marrying a divorcee. (Korodegaga: WIDE 1)
More violent forms of marriage through abduction (involving kidnapping and rape) were frequent. This proved to be a strategy used by poorer men to either avoid or reduce the large bridewealth payments. This form of marriage caused much distress for young girls who experienced the terror of rape. Divorce was not an option because of the fear of stigmatisation from the community as illustrated below
During
my marriage, I was very sad because I married through abduction. Since divorce
was considered as devotion from accepted norms, I chose to stay with my husband
for some years. (Turufe Kecheme)
Polygyny is also prevalent amongst the Muslim Oromos and can have
negative consequences for wives and children where tensions between wives can
lead to competition for resources within households and mistreatment of
children. The practice of having multiple partners has also contributed to the
spread of sexual diseases which have disproportionately affected women. This is compounded by adultery amongst men.
The inheritance of a widow by a dead husband’s brother or through the replacement of a dead wife by her sister is still practiced amongst Muslim Oromos. This arrangement can create similar constraints to women as those entrenched in polygynous relationships as illustrated below.
I
was 14 years old married. This was the worst thing in my life because I married
my sister’s husband when she died. This was a big impact in my life. Another
impact in my life was the death of my husband. In 1993, I was married to a
second husband. I am pregnant with the second child for my second husband. But
he married another woman, so he didn’t help me. (Korodegaga: ALF widow 24)
The Amhara are the dominant ethnic group in Yetmen and a large proportion in Dinki but are a minority in Turufe Kecheme and Korodegaga. Although Amhara rules differ, they still serve to embed the view that the woman is the possession of the man and that her purpose is to run the household and produce children. It is common amongst the Amhara to marry early which in turn results in early pregnancy which create difficulties of young girls as their bodies are not fully developed to handle pregnancy.
For Amharas marriage
is a contractual agreement involving the pooling of labour and property to
establish a new household and raise children. Three recognised types of marriage
are 'equal partner', communion marriage (indissoluble), pay marriage (monthly
salary). There is also living together. (Yetmen)
These different marriage types are accompanied by different rules regarding widowhood and divorce. Fafchamps and Quisumbing (2002) give a detailed account of how the control and ownership of assets following death or divorce varies according to ethnicity, the degree to which assets were brought into the marriage (from the wife’s side), and religion; thus illustrating the complexity of gender relations under different circumstances[17]. They also note that government’s policy on land and conversion to non-Orthodox Christian faith is having some impact on the allocation of assets after death or divorce, but recognise that this needs more investigation.
WeD research revealed that divorce from marriage through bridewealth (common amongst the Oromo Muslims) usually results in the divorced wife losing all her rights to property as illustrated below.
A divorced wife has
no right to take any property which she and her husband got after marriage; she
can only take her clothes and gifts she received from her parents during the
marriage which may include furniture and cows. (Turufe Kecheme)
In
Muslim marriage rule there is a statement that is signed by the couples in case
divorce happened. The wife should wait six months if her husband permit to
marry with other man. And there is also rule how they divided their property or
land or their livestock. The wife couldn’t get anything from the property or
land except the endowments that she get from her parent; otherwise she returned
back with thirty birr only. But there are differences in divorcing by now Muslim
females get 70 and above money during divorcing. (Dinki: WIDE2)
Although women have greater claims to property amongst the Amhara (see below), in reality their ability to secure this right is constrained. This is particularly the case for women with no source of independent income (Pankhurst, 2006). As a result, many may decide to withhold their right and migrate back to their home village.
During divorce
children may live with their father or mother depending on the parents
agreement. If the father agreed to give some money or agricultural land for the
children, the mother will take them with her, otherwise the children will live
with their father. Since both husband and wife have equal right on their house
one of them will leave the house on agreement. (Yetmen)
However, this research did reveal that there were changes in place with the fall of the imperial and Derg era. New laws were imposed so that women could refuse the proposal to marry their dead husband’s brother, and that they could retain their rights to property. There was also a greater prevalence of women getting HIV/AIDS testing before marriage and greater tendency of couples marrying for love as illustrated below
There is still dominancy of men. There is no
much change since 1991; women are still confined in the house. However the way
of marriage changed a lot, the ceremony is now completed with a small
expenditure and early marriage decreased highly, less divorce, widows are
getting a good judgement from the court. (Yetmen: WIDE2 2003)
In Korodegaga there was also evidence that couples were eloping to get married, calling it ‘voluntary abduction’ to avoid arranged marriages.
4.4: Violence on women’s bodies
Unequal power relations are also expressed through physical violence towards women’s bodies in the form of female circumcision (known as one type of female genital mutilation (FGM)) and widespread domestic abuse. What makes this more alarming is the fact that woman accept this violence without question, thus highlighting the extent to which gender inequalities are firmly entrenched within society. Kabeer (2003) notes that power is most effective when it restricts choice and hence agency without overtly appearing to do so. Indeed, a recent report by the World Bank (2005)[18] drew on data from a nationally representative household survey in 199