Economic Empowerment Through Income Generating Activities and Social Mobilization

293 Pages·2017·18.63 MB·English

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Dissertations & Theses
2014
Economic Empowerment Through Income
Generating Activities and Social Mobilization: The
Case of Married Amhara Women of Wadla
Woreda, North Wollo Zone, Ethiopia
Belete Deribie Woldegies
Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change
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Recommended Citation
Woldegies, Belete Deribie, "Economic Empowerment Through Income Generating Activities and Social Mobilization: The Case of
Married Amhara Women of Wadla Woreda, North Wollo Zone, Ethiopia" (2014).Dissertations & Theses. 157.
http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/157
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ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT THROUGH INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES
AND SOCIAL MOBILIZATION: THE CASE OF MARRIED AMHARA WOMEN OF
WADLA WOREDA, NORTH WOLLO ZONE, ETHIOPIA

BELETE DERIBIE WOLDEGIES

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program
of Antioch University
in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

April, 2014
This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled:
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT THROUGH INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES AND
SOCIAL MOBILIZATION:
THE CASE OF MARRIED AMHARA WOMEN OF WADLA WOREDA, NORTH WOLLO
ZONE, ETHIOPIA
prepared by
Belete Deribie Woldegies
is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
Leadership and Change.
Approved by:
____________________________________________________________________________
Philomena Essed, Ph.D., Chair date

____________________________________________________________________________
Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D., Committee Member date

____________________________________________________________________________
Norma Romm, Ph.D., Committee Member date
Copyright 2014 Belete Deribie Woldegies
All rights reserved
Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Philomena Essed, whose help,
academic guidance, inspiring suggestions, and supervisory encouragement continuously helped
me throughout the time spent on writing the research. Dr. Essed’s scholarly advice and unstinting
academic input helped to make a better dissertation. As an international student coming from
Ethiopia to the United States, and leaving behind my family and work responsibilities, I
appreciated her continuous communication both by e-mail, telephone, and Skype, which helped
me enormously. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ato Astewale Bimr and Abeba Tekle who
assisted me in the process of data collection from North Wollo. Ato Astewale’s help during the
data collection exercise was inestimable.
My sincere thanks also goes to my editor Mikki van Zyl from Simply Said and Done who
lives in South Africa and who tirelessly went through the dissertation and made important
technical and editorial contributions. Her invaluable advice and constructive comments were
essential in finalizing the dissertation. I also give many sincere thanks to Wadla Woreda
Administrator Mr. Samuel Molalign Desalegn, who provided me with official permission to
conduct the study in the locality. I would also like to extend my sincere and special thanks and
loving appreciation to my wife Enani Zewdu and my children Biruk Belete, Kidus Belete, and
Zewdinesh Belete, and my wife’s niece Aynalem Zewdu for their assistance, appreciation, and
encouragement throughout the completion of this dissertation. My wife Enani Zewdu took the
heavy responsibility of managing our family whenever I travelled not only to the United States
but also outside Addis Ababa within Ethiopia to undertake the study. Many thanks to my
classmate and friend Dr. Emmanuel Olyutan, a retired professor who studied with me to earn an
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additional Ph.D. degree in my cohort at Antioch University. He supported me all the time and his
contribution has been immeasurable and invaluable toward my success.
Finally, many thanks goes to Antioch University for granting me the Alan E. Guskin
Scholarship, without which it would have been impossible to complete this Ph.D. as an
international student coming from the other end of the world, Ethiopia, to the United States of
America.
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Abstract
Wadla Woreda is located in North Wollo Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. The woreda is
predominantly agrarian and the population produces mainly subsistence food crops with small
amounts of cash crops. Access to basic social and economic services such as health, education,
and employment for rural communities is limited due to poor development of rural infrastructure.
Wadla is one of the food insecure woredas in the region. As a result some of the people are
internally displaced and a portion of the population is included in safety-net programs. The
Wadla Woreda is prone to famine due to severe droughts, soil degradation, primitive modes of
production, religious and cultural attitudes toward work, and bad governance. Due to male
domination, women are victims of social discrimination, gender-based violence, and other
socio-economic barriers. In the woreda women have limited access to resources. Their
employment rate and representation in local government are low. Their economic status is
marginal. At times, their income generation is negative, meaning their returns are less than what
they invested, leading them into absolute poverty. To redress existing economic problems and
tendencies in relation to women, there are some initiatives organizing women in the woreda into
groups and clusters so theycan better tackle poverty themselves. The purpose of the study is to
add empirical evidence to existing knowledge on Income Generating Activities (IGA) by
identifying opportunities for women in the woreda and by sharing success stories of women’s
advancement while also identifying barriers. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide
information to concerned stakeholders for scaling up IGAs and for enhanced social mobilization.
The dissertation builds upon an earlier project I conducted that included income generating
activities and advancement among the women. In this follow-up research study a qualitative
methodology is used based on case study interviews of 10 married women entrepreneurs already
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benefiting from Nurture Education and Development (NED) and other similar NGOs and
stakeholders. Focus group discussions including their supporting family members are also used.
The electronic version of this Dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................................i
Abstract…......................................................................................................................................iii
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................v
List of Tables.................................................................................................................................xi
List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………...........xii

Chapter I: Introduction....................................................................................................................1
Situating the Research.........................................................................................................1
Purpose of the Study...........................................................................................................4
History and the Current Position of Women in Ethiopia........................................4
The Relevance of the Specific Research to the Overall Research..........................6
Selection of the Research Sites...............................................................................7
Justification of the Research...................................................................................8
The Research Questions....................................................................................................12
Positionality......................................................................................................................13
Nurture Education and Development (NED) Program.........................................15
Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (ORDA)..............16
Gender...............................................................................................................................17
Male Domination..................................................................................................20
Women’s Advancement........................................................................................20
Empowerment.......................................................................................................22
Barriers to Women’s Empowerment....................................................................23
Opportunities.........................................................................................................25
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Social Mobilization...............................................................................................25
Methodology.....................................................................................................................27
Ethics of the Research...........................................................................................28
Outline of the Dissertation................................................................................................29
Chapter Summary.............................................................................................................30
Chapter II: Related Literature Review..........................................................................................31
Scope of the Literature Review.........................................................................................31
Background Information and Local Context....................................................................32
Gender Inequality and Male Domination.........................................................................33
Theory About Gender in Relation to Culture, Tradition, Religion, Family,
Ethnicity and Other Factors..................................................................................33

Gender Inequality..................................................................................................33
Male Domination..................................................................................................35
Culture...................................................................................................................37
Tradition................................................................................................................37
Religion.................................................................................................................38
Music and Fashion................................................................................................39
Family...............................................................................................................................40
Ethnicity............................................................................................................................41
Leadership.........................................................................................................................42
Social System of the Amhara People....................................................................45
Participation in Economic, Social, and Political Life...........................................48
Limited Access to Quality Education...................................................................49
Limited Employment Opportunities.....................................................................51
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