Social issues and challenges in Ethiopia

Women's rights in Ethiopia: A famine of opportunity

Ethiopia presents a paradox for modern feminists: on one hand, Ethiopian women have at times played a strong and positive role in the development of their nation's political life. On the other hand, political, economic and social obstacles have placed seeming insurmountable barriers in front of many women's ability to take their rightful places in government and in commerce alongside their male counterparts. Without equal opportunities, Ethiopian women have lagged behind men in all spheres of society that hold a promise for advancement.

Prior to the civil war and the 1974 Revolution, Ethiopian women had an active political voice, but always had to articulate their desire for liberation through non-political channels. Women organized associations that often had subversive political agendas and when fighting broke out, women engaged in combat as well as supported revolutionary fighters against the corrupt regime in power (Implementing the Ethiopian Policy, World Bank, 1998). However, despite female stoicism during the famine of the 1980s, and the vital role women played in keeping social networks alive, it was not until first elected government in 1995 that women's issues such as the need for the expansion of girl's schools were given official priority.

Over 85% of Ethiopian women live in rural areas today. Land reform was one of the primary goals of the Revolution, but because land is almost passed from father to son, the revolution had little impact on women's lives. This is not to say that there were not some positive developments after 1974: "The enrollment of women in primary and secondary schools increased from about 32% in 1974/75 to 39% in 1985/86, although the rate of enrollment of urban women far exceeded the rate for rural women" (Ofcansky & Berry 1991). Yet even educated urban women have found few economic footholds: over 40% of educated women work in entry-level jobs, and women factory workers in Addis Ababa earned about a quarter of the wages men earned for the same type of work (Ofcansky & Berry 1991). .

A 2009 interview with a rural Ethiopian woman elicited this information. She had been "kidnapped by her future husband, Getachew (Getu) Mulleta, and taken to his brother's home. Tradition forbade the tearful Zenebu from returning to her parents and the pair was married after negotiations between the two families. Such forced unions are not uncommon in Ethiopia, where men often have near-total control over women's lives" (Walt 2009). Although she sent her son to school, Zenebu kept her eldest daughter at home to help with her housework, and planned to circumcise all of her daughters, as she was circumcised as a child. (Female circumcision is not only more painful than male circumcision; it can cause life-threatening health complications throughout the circumcised woman's life).

Family planning is not talked about socially in traditional Ethiopian culture, except at local health clinics, and even there the emphasis is on the relatively ineffective rhythm method. Catholic health organizations will not discuss family planning or other means of birth control, and many men still consider a large brood of children both to be a sign of masculinity as well as a necessary source of income and labor. Yet prohibitively large families often become an economic burden upon women and men, and quite often it is the daughters of large families who suffer the most, including being deprived of food and water when these precious items become scarce.