Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac

4. Social organisation
Yassin (2008/108) shows furthermore the evolution of the incomes distributed to all cooperative
members from 2001 to 2007, but coming only from weaving and milling: see Figure 9. In 2007, the
traditional weaving corresponded to around 67 % of the whole activity of the cooperative, the
modern weaving to around 28 %, and the milling to around 5 %. The weaving activity only started
really in 2006.
Finally, the members of the Awra Amba community assure their food needs are fully covered all
along the year, whereas two thirds of the Amhara peasants cover their food needs only for nine
months a year, 2.5 million people being affected by chronic food insecurity, and 3 million are hungry
almost every year (among 19 million inhabitants) (Ya08/96 and 101).
The community remains nevertheless poor. Some young members have left it, without doubt for
economic reasons (At05/84).
4.3. Equality between men and women at work
As stated by At05/2, all societies practice at least some division of work between men and women.
Williams (1993) states that women or men who do not comply with this division of work are
suspected not to be "real women" or "real men". The movie of Stine (2012/52-54') gives for instance
an illustration of that in the lower Omo Valley in southeast Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, women work more than men: the women work in average more than 13 hours a day, but
the men less than 13 hours a day (Habtamu et al., 2004/47 and 57).
In Awra Amba, woman's inferior position in the economy was abolished by destroying the traditional
division of work based on sex (At05/81). Women contribute to the expenditure of their household on
an equal footing with men, and fulfil their own economic needs without depending on their husband;
they have full control over their income (At05/83; Ya08/105). A woman of 40 years said (At05/81):
"I participate in the economic activities of the community on the same level as my husband. I share
equally as my husband. We both equally support our family without depending on one another."
Picture 11: Female and male
water carriers back
from spring, in 2010.
Of course, women are not battered for mistakes in their work (At05/80). Here women rights are
respected, whereas in the rest of this poor country, traditions and traditional practices are followed,
not the law. Melkenesh Seid, one of the women living in Awra Amba is happy with this situation.
She said: "Being a member of Awra Amba means I am respected within the family and treated as an
equal. I am able to claim my rights and if I am no longer happy in my marriage, I know than if I
divorce, I get 50 % of our property." (France 24, 2009)
This gender equality is general and starts at the youngest age. We have seen there are no genderbased
games (Yi07/60); at school, the Awra Amba male students prepare tea and so show to other
students this kind of work is not restricted to females (Yi07/79).
However, is the equality real?
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