IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2022) 13-2

Research article
erd

Empowerment of Women: A Comparative Analysis ofExperiences from Rural Communities in Ethiopia
ASRES ELIAS*
Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan
Email: asres@tottori-u.ac.jp

KUMI YASUNOBUFaculty of Agriculture, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan

YUKI TOYAMA
United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan
Received 29 January 2022

Accepted 13 May 2022(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Empowering women and reducing gender disparities are key challenges of 21st
century. This is more pressing in rural areas of developing countries like Ethiopia. The
problem is prevalent in intra-household relationships. However, most initiatives of women
empowerment have been transitory and externally imposed without considering structuralcauses of gender inequality hence they have been less effective. We reviewed andcompared rural women’s empowerment under widely occurring traditional systems versus
community-led initiative, specifically the case of the Awra Amba community in northwest
Ethiopia. The comparison was made on the bases of key indicators including division oflabor, access to information, and resources, leadership and decision-making and genderbased violence. There exist number of studies assessing gender relations in rural areas
under traditional systems. The studies showed that rural women have more workload
involving both household and farm activities compared to men who are tasked to mainly
outside home activities. Moreover, limited accesses to information, services and control
over resources, low decision-making power, lack of opportunities to self-development suchas education and training are key challenges to rural women. However, the above observed
gaps seem to have been relatively tackled in the case of the Awra Amba community. This
community owns a unique self-organized system with the goal of addressing socioeconomic problems through the principle of egalitarianism. Woman's inferior position in
the community is believed to be eliminated by destroying the traditional gender roles andpatriarchal gender ideology. As a result, some of the community values and principles havebeen replicated to other Ethiopian rural communities through own initiated exchange visits.
But the actual implementation of the community-led initiative in Awara Amba is not
immune to criticism. Therefore, in-depth scientific research, and upscaling of successfulcommunity-led empowerment practices should be encouraged to understand how locallyorganized collective actions help to realize inclusive development.
Keywords community-led initiative, decision-making, division of labor,
women empowerment, Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) is indispensable component for sustainableeconomic growth and poverty reduction (Global Health 50/50 and IFPRI, 2021; UN Women, 2018).
It exists where women and men, boys and girls have equality in all aspects of life including,
education, health, nutrition, access to economic assets and control over resources, and possessing
equal decision power at all levels. However, persistent challenges such as unpaid workloads andlower recognition of women’s work; an unequal balance of power in the home and community;lack of access to and control over resources; and gender-based violence remain significant barriersⒸ ISERD

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to gender equality. On the other hand, if rural women had equal access to production factors, yields
from their fields would increase by 20 to 30% total agricultural output by up to 4% in developing
countries, that will lead to better child health and education, food security and improved nutrition(FAO, 2011; Alkire et al., 2013). In general, greater participation and empowerment of women in
the home, community and organizations lead to more inclusive development and representative
institutions, and build resilience and peace, which in turn contributes for development.
While promoting GEWE as one of the major pillars of the previous Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) and the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in many parts of thedeveloping world, gender inequalities continue to be extreme. These gender inequality problems
are particularly severe in Sub-Saharan Africa where population is expanding rapidly. For SubSaharan Africa to leverage its demographic dividend, it is vital to include all segments of society,including the poor, marginalized men and women into the development process. Without inclusive
and transformative development, it is hard to ensure socio-economic development, enhance
productivity and improve welfare of future generation in the region (World Bank, 2020). To curb
the challenges of gender equality, many donors and programs implement instrumental approaches
to address inequitable gender norms such as men’s dominance in decision- making, constraints that
limit women’s access to resources and services, among others. However, these efforts often aretransitory and imposed from outside while overlooking the significance of existing community-led
practices, social norms and values. Unless structural causes of gender inequality are addressed,
instrumental approaches alone cannot build empowerment and enhance resilience (Minne et al.,2018).
Ethiopia is one of the Sub-Saharan African countries which has adopted global agreements
and endorsed country-specific laws and policies that are stated in the country’s constitution Article
35, such as equality in matters related to employment, equality in acquisition and management ofproperty, equal participation in policy and decision making, and right of women to plan theirfamily (FDRE, 1995). The reforms on family code implemented in 2000 and the community-based
land registration, undertaken since 2003 have shown progress little by little (Kumar andQuisumbing, 2015). However, there are still huge gaps and challenges in implementation that canbe witnessed by the gender gap index that shows Ethiopia placed at 97th rank out of 156 countries(WEF, 2021). Ethiopia being a country characterized by traditional, conservative and patriarchy
culture that ascribes a low status to women in all dimensions, however in some self-organized ruralcommunities such as Awra Amba, women's inferior position in the society is believed to beeliminated by destroying the traditional gender roles and patriarchal gender ideology (Emirie andTeferi, 2013; Mengesha et al., 2015; Joumard, 2021). Thus, to understand these two contrasting
phenomena that exist in one country, literature review and investigation of the present situation
were conducted to identify areas for future research.
OBJECTIVE
This study reviewed existing literatures and compared gender roles and relations under widely
occurring traditional systems versus community-led women empowerment initiative such as thecase of the Awra Amba community in northwest Ethiopia.
METHODOLOGY
Literature Search Method
A systematic search of articles published in peer-reviewed journals, dissertations, reports, andbooks between January 2001 - December 2021 was conducted using Web of Science and Google
Scholar databases. Particularly Google Scholar was used to search studies related to Awra Amba
community (as most of the studies exist in master’s thesis and report form). The keywords usedwere ‘rural women’, ‘gender’ and ‘Ethiopia’. The specific time period was selected for two
reasons; 1) to incorporate up to date literatures, and 2) as it aligns with the period when Awra Amba
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became publicly known through Ethiopian Television documentary about the village aired in2001(Joumard, 2021; Østebø, 2021). The documentary narrated the story of a self-sustained andgender-equal community in contrast to the traditional gender-conservative society in Ethiopia.
The search results were vast. However, a review of the studies was made based on studies
explicitly focus on gender roles and relations including division of labor, access to information,
services and resources, leadership and decision-making role and gender-based violence in rural
Ethiopia. Only studies that were a good fit with the research objective and accessible online were
included. Besides, title, abstract and conclusion of each study were checked to decide the relevancy.
Out of 124 articles accessed in Web of Science and 16 dissertations, articles and reports in Google
Scholar, we only screened and used 23 studies. We did not conduct quantitative analysis rather
main findings of the selected studies are qualitatively synthesized, summarized, and presented. As
women’s empowerment is hard to measure conceptually and contextually, the focus of this review
paper is only to compare gender relations in a traditional versus community honored as a model forgender equality in published and unpublished literature, national and international media outlets,
among others. However, it does not mean gender relations cannot show the situation of women
empowerment. Gender relations are critical aspects of culture that shapes the way daily life is lived
in the family and community as a result it can serve as a cornerstone for empowerment.
Description of Target Groups of the Study
The purpose of this section is to provide an overview of the target groups of this review paper,
specifically: rural women in locations where traditional systems are commonly practiced, and Awra
Amba community, where gender equality is advocated and implemented. This section can serve asa basis to understand the remaining parts of the paper.
Over 80% of Ethiopian women reside in rural areas, where households are engaged primarily
in subsistence agriculture. In the countryside, women are integrated into the rural economy, which
is often labor-intensive and demands a heavy physical force in agriculture and domestic chores. As
in other traditional societies, in Ethiopia, a woman's worth is measured in terms of her role both asa mother and wife. Women are rarely perceived for their hard work, and most of the time a man
decides in their lives and limits their access to resources and opportunities (Demissie and Abebe,2017; Gebrehiwot et al, 2018). As a result of patriarchal gender ideology, most rural women are
generally submissive to men.
Table 1 Characteristics of target groups
Characteristics
Demography
Livelihood
Gender ideology
Religion

Women in the traditional system
About 80% reside in rural areas
Subsistence farming
Patriarchal (conservative)
Exist

Women in Awra Amba community
Consists of about 500 people
Agriculture, weaving, small trade, and tourism
Non-patriarchal
Non-exist

Awra Amba is a small rural village in Ethiopia, comprises about 500 people (weaving
cooperative community). It is located 73 km East of Bahir Dar in the Fogera district of South
Gonder Zone, Ethiopia. The people share a strong ideology and culture, which differentiates themfrom other communities. Number of studies show the community advocates and have codified rules
and regulations: gender equality, children’s rights, solidarity, the golden rule (treat others as you
would like to be treated yourself), the value of work, absence of religion or institutionalized
religion, and democracy (Gelana, 2009; Teferi, 2013; Ambawu, 2015; Joumard, 2021). They
believe in hard work and being good to all people.
The next section presents how the above two contrasting social norms that exist in one country
have been devoted to ensuring gender equality through women’s empowerment based on indictors
mentioned in the first part of methodology section.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONⒸ ISERD

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Gender Based Division of Labor
Since the 1970s, there have been ongoing discussions over the ways in which gender roles in thehome and outside are assigned and recognized. Division of labor, gender roles and inequality in asociety depend on its cultural beliefs about the nature and social values of gender differences incompetencies and traits (O’Connor, 2019). This fact is a common phenomenon in Ethiopia where
gender roles and division of labor is dictated by cultural and social norms. Women are traditionally
expected to work hard and are responsible for all reproductive and household related activities, on
top of their active role in farm activities except ploughing which is considered as a man’s task in
Ethiopia (Elias et. al., 2015; Badstue et al., 2020; Joumard, 2021). Women have greater workload
than men but viewed as auxiliaries who provide labor (Petros et al., 2018; Badstue et al., 2020) andtheir workload is estimated between 13-17 hours a day, which is comparatively more than twicethat of men (OECD, 2014; Elias et al., 2015; World Bank, 2020). As a result, women’s workload(time poverty) is main disempowerment factor in agriculture and beyond (Petros et al., 2018;
Belete and Melak, 2020). Generally, in rural areas of Ethiopia, women are solely responsible forhousehold chores, while men are responsible for tasks outside the home. It is culturally dishonor
for men to be involved in reproductive activities (domestic chores) (Gebrehiwot et al., 2018).
Discriminatory social institutions/ norms and stereotypes on gender roles exacerbate unequal
distribution of responsibilities and therefore, remain one of the constraints to ensure genderequality that in turn enable women to be active participants in social and economic development ofrural areas.
Table 2 Brief summary of gender relations in traditional system and Awra Amba community
Indicators
Division of labor

Women in the traditional system-Gender based division of labor exist.
-Women are traditionally responsible for all
domestic chores on top of their active role infarming.

Women in Awra Amba community-Gender roles do not exist.
-Men do domestic chores includingchildcare, cooking, etc. Women do
productive activities and vice versa.

Decision making
power and leadershiprole-Women have nil to limited voice in decision
making, participation and leadership role inhousehold and public rural organizations.

-Women have the right to take leadershiprole and decision-making power andexercise it at both at household andcommunity levels.

Access to and control
over benefits ofresources,
information, andservices-Limited access to and control over resources,
including land, and use of credit, improved
technologies, education, and training.

Equal access to education, healthservices, possession, and control overbenefits of resources including land andhousehold assets.

Gender-based
violence-Nearly half of Ethiopian women experience
lifetime GBV.

Their non-violent treatment of womenmakes them different from others.

Source; Authors compiled from reviewed literature

Contrary to the above facts, in Awra Amba community which has distinct gender relations,
there is almost no marginalization and discrimination of women and gender-based division of labor.
Nearly all reviewed studies revealed that gender roles and relations are guided by the principle ofmutual understanding among all members of the community. The community rule and regulation
states in its article 5 that both men and women must share equally all their responsibilities insideand outside the home (Joumard, 2021) they should share works on a strict basis of ability andefficiency guided by discussions and mutual understandings (Emirie and Teferi, 2013; Ambawu,2015) both the Awra Amba females and males have androgynous and nontraditional gender role
perception (Ebrie, 2015). However, according to Ebrie (2015) and Cherie (2012), the absence ofstereotypic gender role is not the basic element of gender equality in Awra Amba, rather it is theresult of active participation of women in decision-making and maintain shared equality ofassumptions among themselves.

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Women’s Decision-Making Power and Leadership Role
The Beijing conference agreement, known as the Platform for Action, named women in power anddecision-making one of the 12 critical areas of concern. Though progresses have been made little
by little in Ethiopia after the Family Code adopted in 2000, and currently 50% of the cabinet isoccupied by women, but women still have far to go towards equal representation in power andleadership in general and rural areas in particular. According to Gebrehiwot et al. (2018); Petros etal. (2018) and Badstue et al. (2020), men have a dominant position in rural society, while women
have nil to limited voice in decision processes at the household level, and participation andrepresentation in public rural organizations. Generally, men are viewed as the primary farmers andcontrolling major decisions including land use, the use of credit, and control over income andexpenditure. Furthermore, women’s right to participate in reproductive health decision ranges from
40-60% (Alemayehu and Meskele, 2017; Tadele et al., 2019).
Whereas in Awra Amba community, women have the right to take leadership role anddecision-making power both at household and community levels (Emirie and Teferi, 2013;
Ambawu, 2015). Their participation and representation rate in the development committee (themain administrative structure) which consists of about 15 sub-committees has increased from 36%
in 2004 to 64% in 2011 to 70%, and to 81% in sub-committees in 2020. Though, it does not meanequality was achieved in the studied years, rather tremendous improvements have made in terms ofwomen’s participation and representation in institutions found in the community (Joumard, 2021).
Moreover, Ambawu (2015) depicted that the number and timing of children are decided by mutual
understanding of both husband and wife; women also fully exercise their sexual rights with theabsence of pressure and autonomous to access reproductive health services (Teferi, 2013). In
general, traditional stereotypes that hinder women’s decision-making role have disappeared (Teferi,2013). Human dignity and impartiality are fundamental values for women’s and men’s active
participation in decision-making and democratic power relationship in Awra Amba (Mengesha, etal., 2015) relative to the traditional system that favors the superiority of men and restricts the rights
of women in multiple dimensions.
Women’s Access to Resources, Information and Services
Eliminating barriers that prevent women from having the same access to education, economic
opportunities and productive inputs can address structural, gender-based inequalities (Lea et. al.,2018; UN Women, 2018). However, in many developing countries including Ethiopia, rural
women have limited access to and control over a range of resources, including land, access to anduse of credit, cash, improved technologies, information and extension services that are essential toincrease their farm productivity and income (Elias et al., 2015; Demissie and Abebe, 2017; Petros
et al., 2018; Badstue et al., 2020; World Bank, 2020). It is main disempowerment factor in
agriculture at large and other income-generating activities in particular (Belete and Melak, 2020).
Gebrehiwot et al. (2018) revealed that customary and traditional institutions and practices restrict
women's access to land, market and trading, resource related decision-making at the household andcommunity levels.
However, in Awra Amba, men and women have the rights to involve in any economic
activities to earn their own income and participate in social activities (Emirie and Teferi, 2013;
Yassine, 2008). Women have equal access to health services, possession, and control over benefitsof resources including land and household assets and other opportunities (Gelana, 2009; Endale,
2013; Ambawu, 2015). According to the reviewed literature, boys and girls have equal access to
education. For instance, Joumard (2021) revealed that girls’ enrollment rate at university increased
from 46% in 2013 to nearly100% in 2020. There is no prioritization of son’s education overdaughters. Moreover, women are economically independent and can engage in their own income
generating activities other than the income earned from community’s share (Teferi, 2013). Womenand men have equal access to and control over the benefits gained from land and non-land relatedresources (Ambawu, 2015). Besides, during divorce, women can equally share asset and propertyⒸ ISERD

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acquired throughout marriage (Joumard, 2021) which is uncommon and source of dispute in otherparts of rural Ethiopia.
Gender-Based Violence Against Women
Gender-based violence (GBV) is a serious violation of human rights and a life-threatening healthproblem globally. According to the WHO (2021), it is estimated that one in three women will haveexperienced GBV, and the incidence is particularly severe in developing countries including
Ethiopia. A meta-analysis review by Kassa and Abajobir (2018) indicated that nearly half ofEthiopian women experience lifetime GBV including physical, sexual and psychological violence.
Mainly women and girls in rural areas are victims of various harmful traditional practices such as
wife-beating (Gurmu and Endale, 2017; Muche et al., 2014), early marriage, female genital
mutilation (Demissie and Abebe, 2017), prioritize son’s education over daughters’ (Gelana, 2009),
etc. On the other hand, Muche et al. (2014) and Deyessa et al. (2010) depicted that GBVs are
acceptable and tolerable in rural than urban areas due to socio-cultural and traditional norms; mild
consequences towards the person accountable to the offence; low education level, among others.
On the contrary, GBV is not acceptable and condemned in Awra Amba community. Theirsocial norms and non-violent treatment of women make them different from the surrounding
society (Teferi, 2013; Ambawu, 2015). Unlike their neighbor, women are not beaten; nodiscrimination towards single or divorced women (Yassin, 2008); marital relationship is solely
based on free consent of the couples; sexual relations are considered a common good and not ashameful act to discuss about it (Joumard, 2021). As a result, women are free to deal withreproductive health issues. In general, Teferi (2013) explained this situation as a result of culturalvalues like truth, love, non-violence, and peaceful co-existence reinforced by the community’s
moral standards- “do as you would be done by”, contributed to the internal and external peace
processes in Awra Amba.
However, in a stark contrast to the above studies, a recent study conducted by Østebø (2021)
criticizes the communities gendered exclusion tendency that comes due to false accusations. The
author challenges the narratives of the communities’ origin, especially on the viewpoint of religion,
potential of power concentration and questioned the promotion of the community as a ‘model toalleviate poverty’. But the author almost acknowledged the absence of gender-based division oflabor. Though, the study is a thorough investigation of ‘understanding the spread of policy models
in a digital age’ using Awra Amba as a case, yet the arguments and conclusions are based on
generalized theoretical concepts that did not consider local contexts, exhaustive and balanced
investigation of the two sides of the stories told by individuals. It requires further multidisciplinary
quantitative and qualitative studies to refute and/or prove the conclusions made. On the other hand,according to Awra Amba community public relations (2020) there are about 9 communities
replicating Awra Amba values and principles since 2004 to ensure gender equality and eliminate
poverty. But to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that investigate how the values andprinciples are replicated in other areas.
CONCLUSION
This review depicts that rural woman in developing countries like Ethiopia are still facing a
multitude of empowerment-related challenges such as: gender-based division of labor that leads tomore workload to women; lack of decision-making power and leadership role; poor access toresources and services including health and education; and frequent gender-based violence and its
prevalence. Past efforts done to address these challenges often are transitory and imposed fromoutside while overlooking the structural causes of inequality embedded in values and social norms.
These challenges, if not addressed, will remain bottlenecks to the UN’s Sustainable development
goals to ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. However, community-led gendersensitive initiatives like the experience of Awra Amba can have potential to unlock thesechallenges, even if such initiatives are not immune to criticism (e.g., Østebø, 2021). More study onⒸ ISERD

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their role for local and global development has been largely overlooked and this merits future study.
Hence, in-depth multidisciplinary research remains important to understand how community-led
women empowerment practices help to realize inclusive development.
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