Women's Work in Ethiopia

Sometimes when I get together with girlfriends, we complain about the chores that fall on us.  Why is it up to us to pick up toys, organize playdates, buy birthday presents, plan meals (insert your least favorite task here)?, we moan.

Before I went to Ethiopia, I knew that my woes were fairly trivial.  Seeing the back-breaking, monotonous work women do in Ethiopia, I vowed to complain less.

My earlier post about coffee included a picture of rows of women hand sorting coffee beans.   This job seemed cushy compared to some of the other work we saw.  To start, homes in the villages and many in the city don't have running water.  Women and girls walk to public water points or other water sources, stand in line and wait for a turn to fill a 20-25 liter containers, and carry home the water their families will use for the day.  In some villages, girls spend so much time collecting water, they don't have time to attend school.

Driving up a long, steep road to a church built above Addis Ababa, we saw women carrying bundles of eucalyptus on their backs.  These women start walking up the road at 4 a.m., we were told.  They gather eucalyptus branches in the woods, tie them into large bundles, and carry them down the hill where they sell the bundles for firewood.  The reward for this day long process?  About $1.

On one drive, we saw scores of women sitting outside the Sudan Embassy.  Our driver told us that they were waiting to get work visas so they could go to Sudan to look for jobs.  Don't they know how dangerous it is?, we asked.  No, he said.  But they usually come back within a month or two.

An avid bird watcher on our trip asked our Ethiopian guide about a bird she saw.  After stating he couldn't answer her question, he said, We don't watch birds.  We survive.

NOTE:  The UN Millennium Goals seek to eradicate poverty and hunger by achieving decent work for all, and to promote gender equality.  For more details, click here.