Boyden, J., Porter, C., and Zharkevich, I. (2020), “Balancing School and Work with New Opportunities: Changes in Children’s Gendered Time Use in Ethiopia (2006–2013),” Children’s Geographies, 19(1), pp. 74–87.
The article addresses discussions in academic and policy literature about the factors influencing young people’s daily lives and aspirations for the future by focusing on how children in Ethiopia divide their time between school and work. The paper makes the case that children’s use of time reflects both immediate needs and more strategic considerations for the future. This was done by using survey and qualitative data gathered from parents and children between the ages of 12 and 13 as part of the Young Lives study from two rural sites, Zeytuni in Tigray and Leki in Oromia, Ethiopia.
The study investigated whether and to what extent children’s gendered time allocation in Ethiopia is predicted by children’s educational aspirations, wealth, and household dynamics and found that the expansion of education in Ethiopia has had a significant impact on how children allocate their time; less time is spent working and more children, particularly girls in rural and urban areas, are attending school. Data from the entire Young Lives sample as well as from two rural areas with thriving economies show that children’s time allocation does, in fact, respond to a variety of influences, each of which has a different impact on their present and future lives.
According to the study’s findings, children in rural areas now work on family farms or other businesses for noticeably longer hours than they did in the past. However, caring for others and doing chores have changed significantly over this time, taking up on average 2.5 hours less of children’s time in 2013. The gender gap is still significant in this area, though, as in 2013, girls worked on these tasks for just over 3 hours per day while boys did so for only 2 hours. However, compared to 2006, the gender gap had slightly decreased because urban girls had cut back on the amount of time they spent performing household chores, perhaps as a result of paying more attention to their studies.
In Leki and Zeytuni, there have long been obvious differences in gendered roles, responsibilities, and time allocators. In both communities, boys are encouraged to develop skills that ensure their economic dependability through early engagement in productive work, while girls are encouraged to assume roles that facilitate marriage, parenthood, and domestic proficiency from a relatively young age. The findings suggest that any gendered disadvantages girls may experience are subtle and complex. Girls appear to have fewer opportunities for full-time employment or pressure to do so, giving them more freedom to pursue their education, at least until marriage. However, despite the fact that their education may be safeguarded, discriminatory gender norms prevent them from advancing economically.
In conclusion, raised educational aspirations have led to an important shift in norms around intergenerational mutuality. Education is increasingly being linked to children’s familial obligations, in contrast to the past, when children’s primary responsibility to their families was expressed through their work contributions. This is largely because education is seen as crucial to both individual and family social mobility.