Gender Assigned Roles and Parenting – Ethiopia Case Study

Gendered Roles in

Parenting and

Family Support in Ethiopia

Emebet Mulugeta (Ph.D.)Associate Professor, Addis Ababa University

and Director, Nia Center for Children and Family Development

Presentation Outline Ethiopia: Background

Population, economy and culture

Situation of children

Women’s Empowerment

Gender Roles

The Missing Role of Fathers

Legal/policy Provisions on Family Support

What is on the Ground

Conclusions and Recommendations

Parenting/Family Support in Ethiopia

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Background: EthiopiaPopulation

Projection by the census, Ethiopian

population is 85,900,000 in 2013 (CSA, 2011).

Nearly half (49.5%) are women.

41.5% of the population is under the age of

14.

83% of population, rural.


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Economy

Agriculture based, mostly subsistence farming.

Source of major export items: coffee, flower,

leather, etc.

Vulnerable to climatic changes and conflict.

Recurring drought and famine that make

children and mothers most vulnerable.

Children Sustaining Families

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Culture Over 80 ethnic groups, encouraging

multiculturalism.

Mostly collectivist thinking and interdependence.

Patriarchal in relation to gender and authoritarian in relation to child raising.

Child disciplining is punitive, mostly involving corporal punishment.

Prevalence of violence against children is reported.


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Child Health

Infant mortality rate - 59 per 1,000 live births.

Child mortality rate - 31 per 1,000.

88 per 1,000 children die before they reach 5.

44% of children under age five are stunted,

and 21% of children are severely stunted.

29% of children under age 5 are underweight,

and 9% are severely underweight (DHS, 2011).


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Child Work 52% of the children 5-17 years old are

engaged in productive activities (CSA, 2002).

Most children engage in productive work to support the household (54.5%, CSA, 2002).

27% of families engage children in income generating activities to cope up with poverty (Mulugeta, 2008).

One of the major reasons for children to work on the streets is also poverty.

Women Empowerment Ethiopian women:

are less educated (27.95% in higher education) (MoE, 2013),

have less exposure to mass media than men (22% of the women listen to the radio compared to 38% of men),

the overall unemployment rate in urban18.0%: men 11.4% and women 25.3% (CSA, 2006),

and are less likely than men to be engaged in professional, technical, or managerial fields (20.09% of the legislators, senior officials and managers) (DHS, 2011).


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Decision Making

According to DHS, 2011,

Only 36% of women, mainly, decide how their cash earnings are used.

For 55% the decision is made jointly with their husbands,

For 8% the decision is made mainly by their husbands.

For 33%, the husband alone, mainly, makes decisions on large household purchases.


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Violence 68% of the women covered in the DHS agree

that it is okay for women to be beaten under certain circumstances.

Household Responsibilities 43% of currently married women reported

that their husbands participate in household chores.

For 24%, husband participates regularly, while for 59%, husbands rarely participate in household chores.


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Ratification of international and regional instruments,

Legal reforms including provision in the FDRE constitution,

Introduction of affirmative action and gender mainstreaming as a strategy,

National Policy on Ethiopian Women,

Inclusion of measures in national development plans, and

Efforts to implement the various provisions.


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Governments Reaction towards

Gender Inequality

Gender Roles

Gender role in Ethiopia is organized in a stereotypical manner.

Women are primarily responsible and perform domestic tasks related to child and family care (Ethiopian Urban Studies, 2006).

A similar situation was noted in another study conducted on highly successful women (Sewit, 2014).

Women leaders in one study mentioned family responsibility as one of the barrier to their advance in their career (Yania, 2008).

In the context of disempowerment/biased gender responsibilities child rearing activities are mostly taken up by women.


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The missing role of fathers

Role of fathers:

Practice so far is predominantly:

Breadwinners, distant, disciplinarians,

Involve in latter years than early years, and

Focus on distant than immediate needs of children (e.g. education than care).


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The missing role of fathers… Contribution of fathers’ involvement to children’s

development:

Social/Emotional: experience in different styles of nurturing, communication, and play; opportunity for wider social resources; stronger sense of emotional security; exposure to gender responsive role model in parenting and household responsibilities;

Cognitive/Intellectual: more exploration – more confidence; different style of stimulation;

Motor development: exposure to different types of physical activities and varied areas of interest.


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The missing role of fathers …

Contribution to the family:

More harmony, cooperation and

communication;

Less stress on mothers;

Benefits for fathers:

More opportunity to contribute to children’s

development;

More happiness and satisfaction: getting love

back, appreciation, sense of belonging and groundedness.


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Legal and Policy Frameworks for

Family Support In addition to international and regional commitments, Ethiopia has made, the following provisions are available:

As a natural and fundamental unit of society, family is entitled to protection by society and the State, the FDRE Constitution, article 34, no. 3 .

Provisions on the minimal age for marriage, the need for consent in marriage, the importance of support, respect and assistance between spouses, and the right for joint management of family (Federal Family Law art. 6, 7, 49, and 50).


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Legal and Policy Frameworks Continued …

Providing families with:

Opportunities for income generation,

Counseling,

Creating conducive environment for

working parents, especially mothers,

Raising awareness about children’s rights,

Facilitating access to health facilities, and

Adult education to improve the family life.

(Draft National Child Policy)


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Legal and Policy Frameworks Continued …

Mothers and children are two of the main

targets for social protection in the draft

Social Protection Policy.

Core strategies to address gender:

Economic empowerment, access to

education; efforts to change negative

attitudes and discriminatory laws and

regulations.


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Actual activities or implementation

Government: Support by the Health Extension Workers (HEW),

Training on parenting skills carried out by the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs.

NGOs Plan Ethiopia: Training to parents and guardians

to provide with skills and knowledge about healthy development of children from birth to 8 years, targeting 24 villages in two regions, 24,800 people.


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Hiwot Ethiopia: a local NGO offers an orientation for mothers on positive

parenting and to children on how to protect themselves from abuse.

a 55 minutes a week program on 3 radio stations on the involvement of men in preventing child abuse and the importance of fathers’ involvement.

Progynist, another NGO, had a project with a component on parenting training offered to selected model families, who in turn were expected to train community members.

Private initiatives: private offices proving counseling services to children, couples, and families, and various forms of training on issues related to families.


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Conclusions

Ethiopia is a country with a large population.

Quite a proportion is under the age of 14.

Though there is a steady decline, all child health indicators are quite high, signaling the need for attention.

The gender role in Ethiopia is stereotypical, which leaves women as the main actors in child rearing and family care.


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Conclusions …

This leaves little room for fathers depriving:

children of the opportunity for healthy and holistic development;

mothers of collaborative and harmonious child rearing and more time;

and fathers of the opportunity to get love, appreciation and sense of belongingness.


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There a number of legal/policy frameworks that contains provisions on family support.

A number of activities are being undertaken to support families by the government and NGOs.

However, the number of activities and the type of interventions are limited, which leaves majority of the Ethiopia families without support.

Follow up, impact evaluation, degree of coherence and coordination among these activities are also non-existent.


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In such a fast changing environment, which leaves all concerned in confusion, the necessity of family support is unquestionable.

This pre-supposes a further study or an assessment that clearly shows the gaps in parenting support.

A framework needs to be designed that puts together all the provisions in the various legal and policy documents and guides the interventions put in place by various parties to ensures effectiveness and coordination.


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References Bethlehem, et al. (2006). Ethiopian Urban Studies. Ethiopia

Wellbeing in Developing Countries Research Programme.

University of Bath: WeD-Ethiopia.

Central Statistical Agency. (March, 2012). Ethiopia

Demographic and Health Survey 2011. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Central Statistical Agency (2011): Key Finding on the 2010

Urban Employment Unemployment Survey. Addis Ababa

March 2011.

Central Statistical Agency. (2006). Report on the 2005 Labor

Force Survey. Addis Ababa.

Central Statistical Agency (2002): Ethiopia Child Labour Survey

Report 2001. Statistical Bulletin 262. Addis Ababa

Mulugeta, Emebet. (2008). ‘Negotiating Poverty: Problems and

Coping Strategies of Women in Five Cities of Ethiopia’. In

Mulugeta, E. (ed.), Urban Poverty in Ethiopia: The Economic

and Social Adaptations of Women. pp. 10-66. Addis Ababa

University Press. Parenting/Family Support in Ethiopia

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Gender Assigned Roles and Parenting – Ethiopia Case Study

Science

ethiopian population

population size

large population

projected population

total population

population of young

life skills training

basic life skills