A new discourse on ‘gender’ in Ethiopia1

Abstract

Ethiopia seems to be charting a unique discourse on women which is similar to many of the ‘gender’ discourses on the continent (Namibia, Jamaica, Cameroon, etc.) that are embedded in the state. The situation is one where the government does not feel compelled to follow global trends on gender discursive practices. Instead it defines its own contextual framework of operations. Although this might have brought positive results in some countries (such as Jamaica, Chile, Sri Lanka, Uganda and the Philippines), in the Ethiopian context it is increasingly reflecting autocratic tendencies and control, hostility against civil society actors, and aggressive forms of repression. Government instruments such as Women's Machinery, Women's Policy, a National Action Plan, constitutional measures and decentralization policies have been set up to provide the government with a basis for its distorted form of Lenin's ‘woman question’ rhetoric. The aim of such instruments, in the main, is to provide the government with a monopoly position on the agenda of women's emancipation in the country. The result is the absence of a comprehensive radical gender discourse; in its place there is a rigorous focus on a depoliticized national women's discourse. This has an extremely narrow outlook that is actively promoted as meeting the demands of women's emancipation, rights and freedom in the country.