Gender and women representation in Gurage culture of Ethiopia

The aim of this chapter is to describe the social, cultural and political representation of women in the Gumer district of the Gurage Zone of the snnprs of Ethiopia. We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions (fgd) with men and women in the district, and analysed the text using critical discourse analysis (cda). We had 19 interviewees and five fgd participants. We also made observation of events in wɨk ^j ər ‘evening gathering’ and shopping in the big and small markets where men and women shop categorically, buying different items in different sections of the market. We also consulted documents dealing with gender and women’s roles in Gurage. The findings showed that there are noticeable differences between men and women in role categories, social positions, expected behaviours, and in the responses to different gender discourses. The differences were observed in the discourses of blessing, name bestowing, mourning ceremonies and proverbs, in addition to those found during interviews. Different factors, such as financial resources, societal views about men and women, and long-established cultural belief in the society contributed to the lower representation of women in social and political positions.