Exploring Ethiopian Women Experience of Discrimination and Coping Mechanisms: The Case of Wayto Women in Bahir Dar Town, Northwestern Ethiopia
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2010-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Discrimination, as a social and economic phenomenon, has been the center of several research works. As an issue that touches the life of many people in different parts of the world in general and in Ethiopia in particular, it has been researched in different contexts and in different frame of references. But, there is no specific research on Wayto women’s experience of discrimination and their ways of coping against it. Although there are some literatures reflecting on the community as a whole, this study is different in that it is about women’s voice from their experience of discrimination and their coping mechanisms through feminist theoretical frame of reference and this is also the rationale behind conducting this research. The main objective of this study is to explore women’s experience of discrimination and their coping mechanisms in Wayto community of Bahir Dar town. To achieve the main objectives of the study, qualitative method consisting of observation interviews and focus group discussions has been employed.
The method of data analysis is interpretative one. The methods employed have helped the study to come up with its own findings concerning the source of Wayto women’s discrimination, the forms of discriminations they have experienced as well as the coping mechanisms. In order to generate necessary information from different directions; two major groups of participants were incorporated in this study, i.e. members of the Wayto community and members of the Neighboring groups. Thus, a total of 17 Wayto women and 6 neighboring women have participated. Besides, five key informants from the Wayto community were included. It is explored that women in Wayto community are suffering from economic and social discrimination, religious discrimination, sex discrimination and also age discrimination. It is also found that women discriminate women in Wayto community. Women in their own community were involved in verbal or physical act of violent behavior, hostility and intimidation.
Besides, Wayto women face discrimination from their neighboring women. Further more, Wayto women were sexually exploited by men from their neighbors through visiting unions where there is only sexual intercourse without any economic support which cause women having out of wedlock children and increase their economic burden. In addition to their fieldwork, women in Wayto community like that of the majority Ethiopian women were found responsible for domestic activities such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water and so forth. However, they were responsible for domestic activities in a condition where there is no enough space to undertake such activities
as well as in a culture where saving for tomorrow is not known. Wayto Women bake Enjera every day, and this baking as well as cooking is done in an open fire and in inefficient stoves which brought physical damage. Hence, the intersection of different factors was found creating multiple forms of women’s discrimination in Wayto community. Three types of coping mechanisms that Wayto women use to overcome their discrimination were also found. These are emotion based, action based and the combination of the two (emotion- action based)
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Gender Studies