Yorke, Louise & Gilligan, Robbie & Alemu, Eyerusalem. (2023). Moving towards empowerment? Rural female migrants negotiating domestic work and secondary education in urban Ethiopia. Gender, Place & Culture. 1-22.
The paper offers a thorough investigation of the experiences of eight rural female migrants who moved to Addis Ababa to work as domestic workers while continuing their secondary education as evening students. Qualitative research using focus group discussions (FGDs) to explore their experiences of education and gender equality across rural and urban locations and life story interviews were conducted to explore the education and migration pathways of the participants and make connections across themes (gender, education, and migration), time (past, present, and future), and location (rural-urban). York et al. explored the participants’ lives and experiences in their rural home communities before moving to the city to determine the factors that led to their migration and how moving as a domestic worker gives participants access to opportunities for education and employment.
The first finding of this study was the existence of inequality and disempowerment in rural areas, which was explained by the fact that rural communities were characterised by poverty and hardship. Participants described how access to even the most fundamental resources, like food, running water, and electricity, was severely constrained and how there were very few opportunities to make money. The effects of poverty had a disproportionately negative impact on girls and women, who also faced the intersection of restrictive gender norms and economic inequalities. Domestic work was seen as the primary responsibility of girls and women, a responsibility that they assumed from an early age, and participants described their days as being nonstop with household chores.
For rural young women, migrating as domestic workers and continuing their education in the evening shift in urban secondary schools is an important strategy for achieving social mobility and empowerment. Although the participants were pleased to have the chance to continue their education in the city, they talked about how the poor quality of the education they received as evening students made it unlikely that they would benefit from it. The participants’ stories show how, instead of paving the way for empowerment, their experiences in urban schools and households result in their exploitation and disempowerment. Even though they appear to be aware of this constraint, participants agree that it makes more sense to stay in the city, waiting for a better future, than to return to the rural area, where their only option is to enter an unequal marriage.
The analysis demonstrates the importance of critical approaches to female empowerment that include a focus on structural inequalities and power imbalances, as domestic worker exploitation highlights the urgent need for legislation to protect their rights, including fair working conditions and freedom from abuse and exploitation. In addition, greater policy focus should be placed on the quality of education received by students who attend evening classes.