Drucza, Kristie & Aregu, Lemlem & Tsegaye, Mulunesh. (2022). Agency, Gender and Development in Oromia, Ethiopia. Cadernos de Estudos Africanos. (41), p 15-35.
The authors use a case study on farm gate selling in Oromia Ethiopia to illustrate gender and power relations in rural wheat farming households. The case study shows how initiatives to improve food security, including those that attempt to lower post-harvest loss, can have negative social and economic effects, particularly on women’s agency. The article draws on analysed qualitative data from a collection of interviews: 275 individuals (99 adult women, 96 adult men, 39 adolescent girls, 41 adolescent boys). One case study from the validation process explored the idea of “stealing” the harvest and the impact that farm gate selling might have on household gender relations.
Drucza et al. argues that the postcolonial revolution in knowledge about gender and power relations has not touched the agricultural sector. This argument is valid for the most part and is supported by the data included in the article. The findings show that gender relations are complicated and that merely questioning one family member does not adequately capture the reality of power struggles and gender norms that govern intrahousehold relations. Yet, agricultural development approaches undercut women’s initiatives by not being aware of the mechanisms that most women use to cope with food and resource shortages. This ignorance reinforces a neo-colonial narrative of women as passive, and hence not worthy of study. The gender power relations that exist at the individual, household, and community level as well as women’s welfare improves when they have more agency, yet such changes have proved to be difficult to achieve.
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