Tension in the Family: Exploration of Gender Relation in the Family

This research paper explores the features of gender relations in middle-class families in Addis Ababa. The specific family context that the research interested in is the situation in which the female partners of the family have passed through in the course of a significant change in their educational and the associated occupational status after they got married. In relation to the major structural changes that have been happening in Ethiopia for the last 20 years, women’s participation in the formal education and public employment has increased. However, it is argued that these structural changes overlooked the dynamics of the gender relation at the family level. Therefore, by taking education and employment as major variables, this research attempts to explore how the structural change affected the existed gender relation within the family. By carrying out an in-depth interview with members of such families, the research highlighted how the change of status among the female partners challenged and changed the normative gender/power relation with in the ‘private’ arena. Moreover the findings pointed out that due to these changes have created a tension within the family. This is from the fact that gender relation is a socially constructed and also incorporated both femininity and masculinity (Scott, 1988, Connell, 1999); whilst overseen by the society through social norms and values