Women in the developmental state: female employment and empowerment in Ethiopia

How does womens participation in the labour market affect their empowerment, that means womens ability to make strategic choices that change their lives in fundamental ways? The aim of this project is to understand the impact of factory jobs on womens empowerment in Ethiopia. Our research design includes a large randomised control trial (RCT) and in-depth qualitative interviews which has enabled us to provide new and unique knowledge on female employment and empowerment. The RCT include data from a large sample of comparable women with and without a job. By comparing women with and without a job on a wide spectre of factors determining their empowerment, we are actually able to say something about the causal effects of jobs on empowerment, something existing studies yet has to present. The present project is the first to identify the individual level effects of jobs on female empowerment. We identify the effects of jobs by collaborating with 25 large companies in Ethiopia to randomly assign jobs to equally qualified applicants. We have data from 6, 12, 18 months follow ups. We have found that job offers increase formal employment, earnings, and earnings shares within couples in the short run. We also find that job offers reduce the participation in community meetings but does not affect political interest. A likely mechanism for our results is increased time pressure for the women who got the jobs. Consistent with such an interpretation we find reductions in leisure time and in time spent on social and religious activities. This project has produced several journal articles and book chapters, numerous presentations and lectures, media appearances and a PhD in Development Economics. Among the articles is one on the relationship between factory employment and political participation in the journal Social Politics (UHR level 2), where we have found that there is no significant relationship between factory jobs and political participation and interests, contrary to the findings from developed and democratic contexts (Aalen, Villanger and Kotsadam). One more article with the same topic, but based on extended data material and randomization is underway. Another article entitled ?Jobs and intimate partner violence. Evidence from a Field Experiment in Ethiopia? is still in the pipeline, but has been presented at a high number of academic conferences and is prepared for submission to a high ranking economics journal. The first analysis of the casual effects of jobs on Intimate Partner Violence has been completed and shows that six months after getting the job, there are no statistically significant effects of the job. However, we are careful with drawing any conclusions yet since this analysis is only based on a subset of 1100 respondents and only surveyed once, six months after they got the job. Nevertheless, this is the first causal identification of the impact of getting a job on IPV, so it is a great milestone. Two of our Ethiopian research partners have written book chapters for an edited volume on Gender, Development and Women's Rights: Ethiopia's Perspective (forthcoming). The PhD candidate will submit her thesis at the Bergen School of Economics early 2020. She has completed one co-authored article: ?Conflict or cooperation? Experimental evidence on intra-household allocations in Ethiopia? with Kjetil Bjorvatn and Tigabu Degu Getahun, forthcoming in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, and have three more articles in the pipeline. The Ethiopian political context has changed dramatically in this project period. The former prime minister resigned in February 2018, after popular protests and a crack in the ruling party. The new prime minister has introduced wide-ranging political reforms. The new PM was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. Based on these changes, the team applied for new funding from the Research Council of Norway, and won a new 3 year grant from the Norglobal programme to follow the same factory workers also during and after the reform process, entitled Women in Transition (2020-2022).

Prosjektet har kome fram til ny kunnskap om årsakssamanhengen mellom kvinners deltaking i arbeidslivet og kvinners status og likestilling (empowerment). Gjennom randomiserte studier der vi samanliknar kvinner med og utan arbeid i Etiopia, kan vi vise at jobb fører til større materiell velstand og forhandlinsgmakt for kvinna i heimen. Effekten på vald i heimen er ikkje signifikant. Men studia vår viser at kvinner som jobber er mindre deltakande i lokale politikkarenaer enn kvinner som ikkje jobbar, eit funn som bryt med det eksisterande literatur har funne. Dette prosjektet er også det første i sitt slag som ikkje berre viser til samvariasjon mellom arbeid og kvinners empowerment. Funna og publikasjonane får dette prosjektet er difor eit heilt nytt bidrag til litteraruren på feltet, og kan seiast å føre kunnskapen eit steg vidare.

It is fairly well documented that gender equality is positive for economic growth. The claim that female empowerment is smart economics has become conventional wisdom. The opposite relationship, however, that economic growth is positive for gender equality, is more controversial. Although mainstream economic theory prescribes that growth directly or indirectly will ease the pressure on women, experiences from countries with fast growing economies show that womens status and position will not automatically improve as a country gets richer. A common assumption is also that women who work in the formal economy, particularly in the labour intensive manufacturing industries, develop common interests and will see the use of organisations representing their interests (trade unions, welfare associations, civil society organisations or political parties). In a politically constricted environment, with a limited freedom of association, womens organisation is however likely to be restrained. This study aims to contribute to this discussion with reference to Ethiopia: What is the impact of economic growth, through formal female employment, on the empowerment of women? Through the study of female manufacturing workers in Ethiopia, which has one of the fastest growing economies in Africa, we will analyse how women's participation in the labour market impact on gender roles and on women's participation in society through interest groups. In the Ethiopian 'developmental state' regime, economic mobilisation of women is considered crucial for creating growth. Mobilisation is, however, coupled with restrictions on political opposition and civil society, leaving citizens with few options of participation other than through the ruling party and its affiliated organisations. This gives women few possibilities for exercising political influence, which is a crucial aspect of womens empowerment.