The Gender, Participation and Employment Status in Non-Farm Livelihood Activities in Rural Ethiopia: The Case of Shebel Berenta Woreda, Amhara National Regional State

Women in livelihood diversification

Abstract

Women play an immense role in rural non-farm economy. Hence, objective of this study was to assess women’s participation in non-farm activity in Shebel Berenta Woreda, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Mixed research method with explanatory research design was employed for data collection and data analysis. The questionnaire survey was collected from 267 systematically selected women from randomly selected four rural Kebeles, purposively selected key informants and focus group discussants in the study area. The result showed that more than half of respondents(51%) participate in NFA and their extent in NFA participation revealed that, majority of rural women regularly participated in trade, making and sale of local drinks, casual laboring or daily laboring, pottery, food for work, selling of firewood and charcoal production, selling of vegetable and fruits, and retail shopping. While, women has involved in lesser extent on leather works, traditional hair dressing, grain milling and weaving or spinning. In addition, women were constrained from the involvement in carpentry or masonry, community assigned local position, private sector employment and traditional medicine of the non-farm sector in the study area. The employment status of women’s participation in non-farm showed high in self-employment, while limited saying in wage employment. Correspondingly, majority of women pursue NFA in the nearest town or local away from home, whereas small numbers of women pursues NFA through migratory. To enable rural women active participant the government should work on education, providing credit services and built local infrastructure. Key words: Gender, Livelihood, Employment, Non-farm activity, Participation, Shebel Berenta Woreda.