Impact of Gender Inequality in Socio-Economic Development: The Case of Women in Ethiopia

Tsegamariam Dula (2019) ‘Impact of Gender Inequality in Socio-Economic Development: The Case of Women in Ethiopia’, Developing Country Studies, 9(11), pp. 46-52.

Being women and men has its own implication on gender roles that society assign to male and females. This in turn results in a power relation imbalance. The author explained this gender-based role assignment in the introductory part of the paper. Accordingly, productive activities that one performs for income generation through production of goods and service, and community roles that one undertakes for the welfare of the general community like meeting, are considered as the role of the men. Whereas reproductive roles including childbearing, nursing, and activities for the maintenance of the family including fetching water, cooking, collecting firewood and similar tasks are considered as the role of women.

According to the author, in Ethiopia women have been subjected to societal gender-based bias and discriminated against when it comes to access to productive resources such as land, access to education opportunity, employment, basic health services, and decision-making roles. Such socio-economic marginalisation of women has a negative impact on the overall development of the country. Though women play a significant role in the agricultural productivity carrying out an estimated 40% to 60% of all agricultural labour, they are discriminated against when it comes to access to resources and benefit from the product of their labour works. Moreover, the gendered labour division in rural areas negatively affected women’s choices and decision of time allocation among paid and unpaid productive and household activities. This inhibits women from participating in the labour market and gives rise for time poverty. 

The author reviewed literature and reports available in the area. According to the author, the time poverty results from women engaging in the labour-intensive unpaid work that inhibits them from engaging and accessing paid employment. Women spent the majority of their time undertaking household chores like fetching water, collecting firewood, preparing meals, and caring for children and livestock. Moreover, lack of infrastructure such as running water, fuel saving stoves, electricity and other alternative labour-saving equipment exacerbate women’s household burden. Consequently, inequalities in the amount of time available to women and men to devote to paid employment play a significant role in delivering the unequal outcomes previously outlined. Furthermore, even in the absence of cultural restrictions, time poverty restricts  women  from  taking  advantage of  employment  opportunities  which  require  travel  or migration far from their rural homes. The author also added that time poverty also contributes to unequal education outcomes which directly affect women’s access and opportunity to decent and better paid jobs. Due to gendered labour division, men don’t substitute women for domestic labour, instead children, particularly girls are called to share the burden. This immediately results in school drop out and low performance in their education.

The author also pointed out that in the Ethiopian Civil service, the number of women in senior position is very low compared with men. According to the federal Civil service statistical report, the majority of women in the Civil Servants are overwhelmingly in lower positions such as cleaner, secretary and other lower supporting positions. 

Finally, the author recommended to ensure women equitable Labour force participation, a specific target shall be made to ensure women access to and control over resources, providing women with alternative labour saving technologies, enable women to have decision making power and reduce their time poverty.