Does women’s employment impact on their agency in the rural Ethiopian context? Empirical evidence from Sebeta Hawas District, Central Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Women’s empowerment has become a key aspect of global development agenda. Increasing women’s access to resources
including employment opportunities in particular has become central to this agenda. There is both an instrumental and intrinsic rationale for this, at least at a conception level. Nevertheless, the intrinsic aspect of women’s employment often falls out of the frame in conventional development practices and research endeavours in the area. Hence, the paper aims to examine the impact of women’s employment on their agency in rural Ethiopian context taking the case of Sebeta Hawas district in Central Oromia. Mixed research methods were employed. Both quantitative and qualitative data were generated using a combination of survey, interviews and focus group discussions. The quantitative data was analysed using the Propensity
Matching Method (PSM) and the corresponding results were substantiated using qualitative data which were analysed using
thematic analysis. The study draws on Kabeer’s (1999) empowerment model that explicates the nuanced process involved in the translation of women’s access to resources to empowerment outcomes. The findings of the study revealed that women’s wage employment significantly enhanced their self-worth by 6 percentage points,whereas self-employment was found to have minimal impact. This suggests the importance of the type of work that provides women with better financial reward enabling them to meaningfully contribute to their households needs and creates a space allowing them access to new source information beyond their traditional domain in positively impacting women’s self-worth. It also signifies how significant the
cultural meanings associated with the work is in shaping the women’s employment outcomes.