GENDER INEQUALITY AND MARKET INTEGRATION ACROSS THE OMO

Description: This project investigates how populations maintain or adapt cultural livelihoods in the context of economic change. We are designing and collecting empirical measures and ethnographic field data across OVRP field sites, however this project is being initiated at our Hamar field site, where residents maintains relatively traditional livelihoods and lacks substantial market integration. We expect that as Omo Valley populations become increasingly involved in market economies, including in wage labor and in formal education, dimensions of culture, such as subsistence practices and gender-relations will change. 

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Data from this project will be used to evaluate gender-differences in market participation and economic strategies and used to test hypotheses on individual material wealth, household wealth, and within-household gender-inequality. Specifically, the project asks if greater household wealth is associated with increased gender-inequality, and how greater material wealth and decision-making autonomy of women associate with household demographics and economics.

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Field site: Hamar