Baking injera in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Women's invisible labor in the teff value chain

Diede Smith; Marina de Regt; Addis Alem Tekalign

doi:10.1111/gwao.12834

Baking injera in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Women's invisible labor in the teff value chain

Diede Smith
, Marina de Regt^*
, Addis Alem Tekalign

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Women play an important role in food value chain development, but their labor is often invisible in related policies. Female injera bakers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, have suffered a similar fate: their labor has been neglected in policies on improving the teff value chain. Teff is a cereal grown in Ethiopia which is used to make the countries' biggest food staple: injera. In this article we describe and analyze the labor of female injera bakers in Addis Ababa in the teff value chain, and the differences in their visibility along the lines of various identity markers. Based on mixed method research, we found that the effect of the changes in the teff value chain on female injera bakers' labor (in)visibility were most negative where certain identity markers intersect. The negative effects run along the lines of the formality of the labor, gender, class, age and health. We conclude that the Ethiopian government's neglect of female stakeholders in the teff value chain has led to the increase of existing inequalities and further marginalization of the most vulnerable women.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1428-1442
Number of pages	15
Journal	Gender, Work and Organization
Volume	29
Issue number	5
Early online date	30 Mar 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12834
Publication status	Published - Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank all the respondents for their time and willingness to answer our questions and share their experiences, and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback which helped to improve our paper.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Gender, Work & Organization published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Funding

We would like to thank all the respondents for their time and willingness to answer our questions and share their experiences, and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback which helped to improve our paper.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 5 Gender Equality

Keywords

Ethiopia
food value chain
gender
invisible labor
teff

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10.1111/gwao.12834Licence: CC BY-NC

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title = "Baking injera in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Women's invisible labor in the teff value chain",

abstract = "Women play an important role in food value chain development, but their labor is often invisible in related policies. Female injera bakers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, have suffered a similar fate: their labor has been neglected in policies on improving the teff value chain. Teff is a cereal grown in Ethiopia which is used to make the countries' biggest food staple: injera. In this article we describe and analyze the labor of female injera bakers in Addis Ababa in the teff value chain, and the differences in their visibility along the lines of various identity markers. Based on mixed method research, we found that the effect of the changes in the teff value chain on female injera bakers' labor (in)visibility were most negative where certain identity markers intersect. The negative effects run along the lines of the formality of the labor, gender, class, age and health. We conclude that the Ethiopian government's neglect of female stakeholders in the teff value chain has led to the increase of existing inequalities and further marginalization of the most vulnerable women.",

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author = "Diede Smith and \{de Regt\}, Marina and Tekalign, \{Addis Alem\}",

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N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank all the respondents for their time and willingness to answer our questions and share their experiences, and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback which helped to improve our paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Gender, Work & Organization published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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Baking injera in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Women's invisible labor in the teff value chain

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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UN SDGs

Keywords

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