Hallward-Driemeier, M. and Gajigo, O. (2015) ‘Strengthening economic rights and women’s occupational choice: The impact of reforming Ethiopia’s family law’, World Development, 70, pp. 260–273.
The author commenced the writing by looking into the connection between making choices and pursuing economic opportunities. The point is further interconnected with whether re-enactment of family law called the Revised Family Code of Ethiopia, contributes towards enhancing women control over property and thereby facilitates women empowerment. Family law is one area of private laws that governs marital relationship regarding decision making role and control over assets within the household. Among the major contributions of family law, the first one is changing bargaining power in the household. The changes in bargaining power results from the expansion of women control and administration of assets, removal of the ability of spouses denying the wife to work outside and changing the minimum age of marriage.
The author used two rounds of Demographic and Health Survey data collected through household surveys. Accordingly, the author found out that in 2000, no region or chartered city in the country had implemented the law. But after five years of the promulgation, five regions and the two chartered cities had implemented the law. The survey contained detailed demographic and market information at individual level. To analyse the impact of the reform on women’s economic empowerment the author used the difference-in-difference estimation technique. Accordingly, the reform in the family code is found to have a high contribution in enhancing women’s occupation range, paid work, year-round employment, and higher educational enrolment.
To capture the evolution of legal reforms in Ethiopia, the author compared the Civil Code and the Revised family code. The 1960 Civil Code of Ethiopia gives recognition for women’s right to common property within marriage. However, it’s biassed when it comes to administration of the property. The husband is designated as the formal head of the household, responsible as administrator and manager of all common properties. Coming to the Revised Family Code some of the changes include freedom of the spouse to engage in labour activity of their choice, administration of common property by both spouses. Another significant change is the increase in the legal age of marriage from 15 to 18 years.
According to the finding, the revised family code positively contributed to women employment. Accordingly, women’s share in occupation is increased with higher non-home-based employment opportunities, and higher year round employment. Married women also benefited from the revision, as it increased women’s share in paid work. Young women are also positively benefited from the law as the minimum age for marriage is increased from 15 to 18. This allows young women to pursue educational opportunities and expand their employment opportunity by increasing time spent in school.