Abebayehu Chama Didana. 2019. ‘Determinants of Rural Women Economic Empowerment in Agricultural Activities: The Case of Damot Gale Woreda of Wolaita Zone, SNNPRS of Ethiopia’. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development 10: 30–49.
The role of agriculture as the economic backbone of Ethiopia is mentioned in the introductory part of the article. The author described the role of women in the agricultural sector, whereby women account for 70% of the household food production. Moreover, females contribute more than 48% of the agricultural Labour force. However, their contribution has not been recognized. There is a view that ‘Women don’t farm’ due to the existing social norms and beliefs. Though the entrenchment of this popular cultural belief, the women are still involved in the weeding, harvesting, preparation of storage containers, management of all parts of home gardens and poultry farming, transporting farm inputs to and from the field, and the fetching of water. Due to this, women are not in control of the final product and the income.
The researcher had used a mixed research approach of both qualitative and quantitative along with an econometric model for data analysis including descriptive statistics, Woman Empowerment in Agriculture Index. To select the study participants, the author used multistage sampling and accordingly, 374 women were selected from Damot Gale Woreda to participate in the study.
The researcher has classified factors affecting women economic empowerment into three broad categories namely, demographic, economic and social factors. Accordingly, the finding has revealed that 66% of the sampled women found to be disempowered using the five domains of empowerment namely production, resources, income, leadership, and time use and with their 10 indicators. Finding has revealed that nearly all (92.41%) of women have lacked sole decision-making power over production. Likewise, the author has uncovered that rural married women have gotten less empowerment because of lack of command over productive resources, control over output, and shortage of time. The researcher has stated group members as indicators for leadership. In this regard, the finding reveals that nearly 90% of the rural women were not group members, even though group membership may become one of a path to leadership position among other things. Regarding leisure time, the study has revealed that rural women spent 11 hours per day. Regarding use of income, the article has shown that the majority (82.11%) of the sampled women have lacked control over the use of income.
The article has also revealed that out of the fourteen explanatory variables, elven of them such as age, family size, education level, household income, off-farm income, employment/doing any paid work, ownership of property, credit utilization, distance from the market, access of information and participation of community affairs were found to be significant determinants for rural women economic empowerment. The remaining three variables namely spousal relationship, farm size and extension service show no significant influence for rural women economic empowerment.
The author believes that his research work will inform policymakers regarding determinants of economic empowerment and help to the improvement of women’s lives. The article stressed that policymakers and planners should try to address rural women economic empowerment as the author justifies empowering rural women because it is constitutionally enshrined right, help to combat food insecurity and alleviate poverty and anger.