Gender Barriers to Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Cooperatives in Gog District of Gambella, Ethiopia

Abstract

Gender based inequalities constrain women’s ability to participate in agricultural production in many parts of Ethiopia. To study the forms of gender barriers to women’s empowerment in agricultural cooperatives, this research designed to assess the current status of women and the forms of gender barriers against women’s empowerment in specific agricultural cooperatives. To address the objectives of the study, researchers used both quantitative and qualitative approaches where quantitative data collected from primary sources through questionnaires and qualitative data through focus group discussion with leaders of the selected agricultural cooperatives. Gog was selected purposively due to inadequate studies conducted on gender barriers to women’s empowerment in the agricultural cooperatives. To select the sample size, first 12 agricultural cooperatives with both men and women members selected purposively. Then, 127 respondents were selected by using simple random sampling techniques based on the probability proportionate to size. To analyze the data, simple descriptive statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used for quantitative data and qualitative data were narrated in textual form. Results show that the overall status of women is less compared to men members in all agricultural cooperatives established in the district. Majority of women were the victim of many socio-cultural barriers that hinder their participation in many activities including cooperatives. Except for the year 2009, 2013 and 2017, the numbers of women joined agricultural cooperatives every year since 2006 were less than ten. They represent 31.7%, 16.7% and 25% in the management committees, control committees and as chairpersons respectively. Therefore, the general findings of this study on gender barriers to women’s empowerment are lack of control over resources including land and personal income, gender based domestic violence and division of labor, marriage and dowry system, poor decision making power at households over women’s activities, lack of access to training and low participation in the leadership of their specific agricultural cooperatives.

Keywords: Barriers, Cooperatives, Empowerment, Gender and Gog

DOI: 10.7176/DCS/9-2-01