Continuity and Change in the Rights of Arsii Oromo Women to Property in West Arsii, Ethiopia

抄録

Arsii Oromo men in Ethiopia traditionally dominate decision-making regarding major resources such as land and livestock, whereas the role of women has been limited primarily to domestic affairs. However, women have begun to challenge this custom-based dominance of men. Women now openly speak of this power imbalance and of their desire for it to change. Indeed, such change is emerging in the context of newly evolving laws and policies at national, regional, and local levels. Drawing primarily on the results of diachronic qualitative studies in the Kokossa and Kofale Districts of the Arsii Oromo highlands, this article examines areas of continuity and change in women’s rights to property and in local discourse on the power relations between the genders in the context of legal and institutional pluralism. The results suggest relative improvement in women’s rights in general and in their right to participate in decisions regarding land and livestock transfer in particular. We also found that men and women were generally very aware of the laws and policies regarding gender equality, which serve as the context in which these changes are evolving. Yet, the extent of the improvement in women’s rights did not seem to match the degree to which participants were aware of gender equality. At the local level, traditional norms, values, and elements of the social structure appear to have constrained the application of laws and state administrative provisions designed to promote gender equality.