Cross Sectonal Assessment of Violence Against Female Domestic Workers in Gulele Sub-City for Local Level Intervention
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2006-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
There has been growing public and professional concerns in Ethiopia on the issue of
violence against women. Though domestic workers had been among the most vulnerable
groups to violence in the country, it has hardly got the research attention of the ongoing
nation wide activities of anti-violence campaign.
The present study has tried to contribute to filling in the research gab in the area in the
country by aiming at undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the context, magnitude
and consequences of violence being committed against female domestic workers in
Gulele Sub-city of Addis Ababa.
A total of 82 female domestic workers were purposively selected for the study from
different sites in the sub-city. The assessment was made using adapted Conflict Tactics
Scale (CTS2), Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSC-25), structured interview schedules
and unstructured interviews.
The following were among the major findings of the study: The reasons given by most of
the domestic workers for becoming domestic workers were escape from violence or lack
of subsistence in their family and marriage life or both. The results of the study on the
involvement of intermediaries and the use of the un-kept promises (i.e. deception) in the
process of turning the target subjects into domestic workers was found to involve -
trafficking, which was not only gender based violence but also major crime in the penal
code. It was observed that most of the target domestic workers have experienced sexual
violence as well as economic violence by the brokers. The results of the study on the
work conditions of the domestic workers, the absence of legally binding work agreement
by the employers and the very meager amount of salary being paid while they were
working all day long without little or no break seem to demonstrate the prevalence of
major violation of the rights of the domestic workers. It was observed that the work
relationship between the domestic workers and their employers found to be characterized
by negative behaviors that strongly suggest the high level of mental cruelty of the latter.
The results seem to confirm the violation of the rights of domestic workers i.e.
citizenship, political, social and cultural rights. The very high prevalence rate results
observed in all the violence assessment subscales strongly suggest that the target
domestic workers had had experienced pervasive violent behaviors examined in the study
namely; psychological aggression, physical assault, sexual harassment/abuse and mental
cruelty by their employers in the last 12 months. As to the chronicity of violence, it
observed that the extent of violent behaviors experienced by the domestic workers over
the past year was ‘most chronic’. The statistically significant gender difference observed
in both the prevalence and chronicity of violence committed against the domestic workers
suggest the higher rate of involvement in the perpetration of the violence behaviors by
female employers than male employers The results of the self-ratings of the domestic
workers on HSCL-25 showed that most of them have been experiencing the symptoms of
major depression and anxiety disorders. Likewise the results on PTSD assessment
indicated that the majority of the domestic workers (i.e. above 70 percent) experienced
the symptoms of the post-traumatic stress disorders. The study also identified the major
risks and vulnerabilities, social networks, coping mechanisms and strengths of female
domestic workers and came up with recommendations
Description
Keywords
Social Work