ZEF colloquium: Equality of what and equal how? Conception of gender equality in a rural farming community in Northern Ethiopia

May 22, 2024 | 11:00 h - 12:00 h

The divsion of Cultural and Political Change (CPC) invites you to a ZEF colloquium.

Topic: Equality of what and equal how? Conception of gender equality in a rural farming community in Northern Ethiopia

Speaker: Asrat Gella,  ZEF CPC Junior Researcher 

You can join via Zoom: https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/j/67340198617?pwd=WENQWmZUMmRPbUtiYTBON2pXTEFsZz09 

Abstract: Gender equality, despite its seemingly universal appeal as a developmental goal, is a highly contested concept. This is partly due to the fact that it ties together two separate concepts – gender and equality – each of which are highly fluid, elastic, and highly contested. When combined together, the result is a densely packed construct the meaning of which is wide open to interpretative contestations. In this presentation, I look at how equality (between men and women) is understood, articulated, framed, and acted upon within the context of a small, rural farming community in Northern Ethiopia. This is one chapter of a broader thesis that explores how gender enters in to play in the everyday lives of farmers, the embodied nature of agricultural activities and agricultural knowledge, and understandings of gender itself and gender equality in Ethiopia.

Asrat Gella is a junior researcher at the Cultural and Political Change group at ZEF (ZEF CPC) currently researching the intersections between gender, agriculture, and agricultural knowledge and knowledge systems in the Ethiopian context.