Rural children's perspectives of gendered work and schooling in Ethiopia

This paper discusses children's perspectives of gendered work and schooling in rural southern Ethiopia, where subsistence agriculture has for generations met basic household needs. Drawing on child-focused qualitative fieldwork, it explores the social meaning boys and girls give to work as well as how they combine work with schooling. The paper situates children's work at the heart of family and community livelihood strategies, analyzing the complex ways in which their material social practices are closely intertwined with processes of development and rapid socio-cultural change. It argues that paternalistic approaches that view working children as simple victims are not only unhelpful analytically, but also from a policy point of view. They undermine the capacities and meaningful contributions children make to their families while simultaneously concealing how, through work, children can improve their social and economic independence, attend school, gain self-esteem and increase their potential for upward social mobility. By calling for a holistic approach to child labour, the paper draws analytical attention to rural children's perspectives and experiences of work, how work is constructed differently geographically and how it reflects changes in the local, regional and global political economy.