By Hidaya Muhiden
This blog discusses the status of gender equality in Ethiopia, highlighting the prevailing gender norms and their impact on women’s access to resources, education, and opportunities. Gender norms perpetuate inequality by dictating appropriate behaviours for men and women that maintain the status quo. These norms impact access to resources and freedoms, shaping individuals’ sense of self, voice, and power.
The Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) measures social perceptions of gender equality in political, educational, economic, and physical integrity dimensions. In Ethiopia, the GSNI reveals deep-rooted biases against women, with 98.77% of the population holding biases. The blog concludes by advocating for the removal of gender-based discrimination and promoting gender equality in various dimensions, including economic participation, healthcare access, and reproductive rights.
Introduction
Gender norms, which outline appropriate and accepted behaviours for men and women within a specific group or society, are deeply ingrained in both formal and informal institutions and are perpetuated through social interactions. These norms have a significant impact on women’s and men’s access to resources and freedoms, thus shaping their sense of self, voice, and power. Cislaghi and Heise (2020) argue that norms are just one aspect of the gender system, which also includes gender roles, gender socialisation, and gendered power relations. In this view, gender norms maintain the status quo by dictating social rules and expectations.
Gender norms often restrict women and girls to traditional roles, such as mothers, wives, and caretakers, which contributes to gender inequality and limited educational opportunities. For instance, girls often face double work duties, which require them to spend more time on domestic and care work. Parents often prioritise these tasks over education, while boys are encouraged to provide for their families. This undervaluation of girls’ voices and experiences hinders their ability to earn a living and become independent, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and domestic labour. Income inequality and reliance on men further exacerbate the problem.
Gender Norms in Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, the male gender is perceived to hold the most power, while women are seen as subordinate to their husbands. It is anticipated that Ethiopian women will be compliant and hardworking and deferential to their spouses who typically provide the majority of the household’s income. This division of labour highlights the complementary relationship between men and women in the workplace. Although urban women are well-educated and employed, men’s opinions are frequently given more weight in the workplace and public spheres.
The Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI)
The Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) is a tool that measures social perceptions of gender equality in terms of capabilities and rights (UNDP, 2023). Originally introduced in the 2019 Human Development Report, the GSNI aims to identify and evaluate obstacles to progress in gender equality. The GSNI indicates that 90% of both men and women hold deep-rooted biases against women.
Even though Ethiopia has experienced economic growth over the past decade and the government has made efforts to promote gender equality, young women and adolescent girls still face gender-biassed social norms. According to the GSNI, Ethiopia has the highest percentage of people with bias at 98.77% (UNDP, 2023). The GSNI covers four key dimensions: political, educational, economic and physical integrity to highlight areas where women and girls face persistent disadvantages and systematic discrimination. Each dimension is characterised by one or two indicators of the invisible barriers women face in life and are covered below.
The education dimension
It has become increasingly clear that the education of women is closely connected to important development issues, such as their participation in productive activities, population growth, family health, reproductive health, and the education of children and daughters. At the national level, education is widely recognised as a vital factor in promoting economic, social, and cultural development, as well as a key instrument for fostering individual social mobility.
Despite the increased enrollment of girls in primary schools in Ethiopia, with rates rising from 21 to 91 per cent over the past three decades (USAID, 2023), many of them are unable to continue their education beyond the primary level due to factors such as distance, personal safety concerns, and financial constraints. To assess beliefs about access to advanced education, the GSNI study measured the extent to which people believe “university is more important for men than women.” This bias was found to be 16.09 per cent.
The economic dimension
Empowerment involves expanding individuals’ capacity to make strategic life choices and increasing their access to and control over economic resources and opportunities. The findings of the GSNI in Ethiopia indicate a significant bias of 61.73% in the economic dimension, where questions regarding the beliefs about economic participation and enhanced economic empowerment are assessed. Specifically, the questions “men should have more right to a job than women” and “men make better business executives than women do” are evaluated in this dimension.
The political dimension
Women constitute 41.5% of Ethiopia’s parliament, but very few hold leadership positions within political parties. The GSNI data shows a bias of 45.03% in Ethiopia, which was measured by asking respondents whether they think that “women having the same rights as men is crucial for democracy” and whether they believe that “men make better political leaders than women do” to gauge attitudes toward achieving high levels of political power. Barriers include negative attitudes toward women in leadership from men and women. Empowering women is essential for them to exercise their power, legal rights and political voice.
The physical integrity dimension
Women’s health not only affects their quality of life, educational level, employment prospects, and productivity but also forms the foundation of their fundamental rights to equality, privacy, and bodily integrity. It is crucial for women to have autonomy in making decisions about their bodies and reproductive processes, which includes access to quality and affordable contraception, including emergency contraception, as part of reproductive health equality.
Men frequently restrict women’s access to healthcare, and they may not be well-informed about the female body. Even if men disagree with discriminatory social norms, they may still deny women access to medical care (OECD, 2021). Moreover, the attitudes of partners and their fertility preferences can influence women’s choices and autonomy regarding their reproductive health. Cultural norms, traditions, and customs in Ethiopia shape gender roles, which limit women’s autonomy in making healthcare decisions.
The GNSI in Ethiopia also reveals a significant bias of 95.18% in the physical integrity dimension, which measures intimate partner violence and reproductive rights. These findings highlight the need for efforts to address gender-based discrimination and promote gender equality in various dimensions, including healthcare access, and reproductive rights.
Conclusion
Gender norms are one aspect of the gender system, which also includes gender roles, gender socialisation, and gendered power relations. These norms perpetuate the status quo by dictating social rules and expectations, often restricting women and girls to traditional roles and limiting their educational opportunities. Ethiopia, has a high prevalence of gender biases, with 98.77% of the population holding deep-rooted biases against women.
In Ethiopia, women face extreme barriers in education, politics, and the economy, and consequently efforts to promote gender equality are necessary. These efforts must include addressing women’s unpaid care roles because this creates barriers for addressing many gender norms. Due to cultural and social factors, women in Ethiopia often have limited access to education and resources and this disadvantages them across their life.
References
Cislaghi B, Heise L. (2020). Gender and social norms: differences, similarities and why they matter in prevention science. Sociol Health Illn. Feb;42(2):407-422. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13008.
USAID (2023). “Gender equality and women’s empowerment: Ethiopia”. U.S. Agency for International Development. Available at: https://www.usaid.gov/ethiopia/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment#:~:text=Increasing%20Female%20Educational%20Opportunities,personal%20security%20and%20economic%20challenges.
OECD (2021). Man Enough? Measuring Masculine Norms to Promote Women’s Empowerment, Social Institutions and Gender Index, OECD Publishing, Paris, Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/6ffd1936-en.
UNDP (2023). “Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI), Human Development Reports”. Available at: https://hdr.undp.org/content/2023-gender-social-norms-index-gsni?_gl=1%2A11tqq89%2A_ga%2AMjM0MjI3NDQ1LjE2ODMwMjY3NTM.%2A_ga_3W7LPK0WP1%2AMTY4OTE1MjYwNy42LjEuMTY4OTE1MjYyMy40NC4wLjA.#/indices/GSNI
Acknowledgement
This blog is a series to reflect on our learnings from a project under the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) – East Africa Initiative. GrOW is jointly funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In collaboration with our partners – WISE for capacity strengthening of key policy actors and Addis PowerHouse for running advocacy efforts – we will enhance women’s economic empowerment (WEE), reduce, recognise and redistribute unpaid care in Ethiopia and strengthen the in-country coalition of key WEE champions.