Manifestations of Gender Inequality in Workspaces: A Case Study of Primary Schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract The manifestation of gender inequality is multidimensional. Gendered manifestations may be derivable, for example, in employment, educational opportunity, health and some unwritten traditional values woven into social structure which are difficult to discern. In Ethiopia, like any other traditional society, a woman’s worth is measured in terms of her role as both a mother and a wife. Over 85% of Ethiopian women reside in rural areas, where households are engaged primarily in subsistence agriculture. Gender roles are clearly defined in Ethiopia. Men tend to hold the most authority, while women are generally considered to be subordinate to their husbands and fathers. The paper thus explores how socio-cultural factors pervasive for centuries led to “engendered” workplaces. The paper further examines aspects of women being oblivious to their position in these workplaces and thus more obvious at certain levels in educational institutions than others. Gender inequalities have manifested themselves in workplaces, thus leading to the feminisation of certain occupations. The paper follows a mixed-methods design, since the aim is to analyse and understand “manifested” gender inequality. For the quantitative analysis, stratified random samples were drawn from selected schools and class levels were considered as strata. For the purpose of detecting intangible aspects of gender inequality, observations and in-depth interviews were conducted. Private schools located in the Bole sub-city of Addis Ababa were the focus of the study, since such schools most often remain out of the ambit of government policies. The paper concludes that women at large do not have a dominating presence at home and even less so in workspaces, where they may consider themselves to be intrusive and become part of a stagnant system, while men take the advantage of any opportunity which will give them higher economic returns.