The Price of Women’s Employment in Business Industry in Ethiopia: A Phenomenological study in Addis Ababa

Abstract

In Ethiopia, thousands of women and girls are openly selling sexual services in bars, restaurants, hotels, and night clubs and on the streets of the cities and towns of Ethiopia. Their entry into prostitution was the result of unemployment, poverty, peer influence, false promises from bar, restaurant and hotel owners and other related socio-economic factors. Once women engage in prostitution, they would experience physical, sexual and psychological abuses i.e. beatings, rapes and insults. The aim of this paper is to investigate the price of women’s employment in business industry. This phenomenological study looks at the working experience of those women employed in massage parlors. In-depth interviews were employed. This paper shows that commercialization of sex in massage parlor is new phenomenon in Ethiopia. It attracts thousands of women to commercialize sex. Prostitution is invisibly practice in massage parlors in Addis Ababa. This paper also shows that long working hours and night work without overtime payments; unfair commission; obligation to wear only bra and pant at the workplace; and sexual, physical and psychological abuses are among prices women paid for their employment in massage parlors. This article generally reveals women’s employment in massage parlor opens the possibility of prostitution and facilitates trafficking of women for the purpose of prostitution.

Keywords: Commercialization of sex, Massage parlor, Trafficking of women, Prostitution, Violence, Women’s rights

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-11-07

Publication date:June 30^th 2019