Do Gender Roles Affect Urban Poverty in Ethiopia? A Focus on Women in Micro and Small Enterprises

Alemu, N.E., Temesgen, E. and Dessiye, M. (2023) ‘Do gender roles affect urban poverty in Ethiopia? A focus on women in micro and small enterprises, Cogent Social Sciences, 9(1).

Gender role is defined in the introductory part of the study. Its classification of activities for women and men depends on perceived gender differences. However, the concept is construed differently across countries in the world. It’s influenced by time, space, social, environmental, and cultural factors. The study depicts the theory of marginality and the theory of dependency to assess how gender roles are affecting women’s economic status. Through marginality theory, the author identified that women are affected by traditional cultures including patriarchal attitudes than men, and are entangled in vicious cycles of unemployment., illiteracy, and poverty. The theory of dependency also holds the basic premises of the theory of marginality stating that the exposure of women to poverty is structural in explaining the symptoms of the growth of women’s poor settlements or slums in urban areas and the life experiences of being illiterate, unhealthy, and unemployed.

With an objective of exploring the extent to which the impact of gender roles in urban areas was evident concerning women’s urban poverty, the author employed a qualitative research methodology with a phenomenological research design. Purpose sampling is used to select the study participants and 77 individuals were selected and participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were conducted to collect the data from study participants.

According to the finding, women were vulnerable and in need of protection from the adverse impacts of gender roles and risks associated with engagement in the MSEs in Ethiopia in general and Assosa city. The study also reveals that gender role is one of the major obstacles hindering women’s educational access, healthcare affordability, equal participation in the economic system, and infrastructural development in the study area. Regarding the impact of gender roles on women’s education, the study indicated that girls’ school performance is perceived to be best if they have a proven record of handling all domestic chores in a good manner. This relates to the fact that females’ excellence in the world of education or work in the public sphere starts well in the household where they carry out various routine household tasks including the socialization of children. However, this stereotype affects girls’ access to education, which later confine their life aspiration and economic welfare.  It also indicated that access to health in the study area is determined by the sex of the patients. The male has the privilege to visit modern health care centers whereas women are advised to visit traditional herbalists. This is due to the prejudiced belief of the husband that the wife’s health matter isn’t worth expenditure. This shows that gender inequalities in power and well-being result from asymmetrical intra-family resource allocation and distribution. Unemployment is found to be one of the factors that lead women to poverty. Women’s relegation to household chores does not only reflect the gender-based division of labour but also the fact that activities girls/women perform in the domestic sphere are not considered real work worth paying. Such practices thus would restrict women’s gainful employment in the public sphere thereby making them dependent on their spouses for survival. The absence of employment for women would trigger poverty in households.

Finally, the author recommended for design of effective intervention strategies for dealing with the impacts of gender roles on urban poverty at the local, regional, and national levels