Public Story
Profession: girl
PROFESSION: GIRL
In Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in Africa, to be a girl is a full time job. According to a report from Unicef, Ethiopia ranks second by the number of hours girls spend doing on household chores: over 22h per week.
Here, being born a girl means a lifetime of fetching water, cooking, cleaning, collecting firewood or taking care of younger siblings. For these girls, the burden of domestic work begins early and intensifies as they reach adolescence. As a result, girls sacrifice opportunities to grow, play and enjoy their childhood but it also burdens their education and future potential and exposes them to physical and sexual violence.
This unequal distribution of labour among children contributes to the construction of girls identities and how they perceive their role into society. As such, girls are raised to believe that their work is less valuable than that of their male brothers and that their place is at the house doing domestic duties, what limit their ambitions and future potential.
Here, being born a girl means a lifetime of fetching water, cooking, cleaning, collecting firewood or taking care of younger siblings. For these girls, the burden of domestic work begins early and intensifies as they reach adolescence. As a result, girls sacrifice opportunities to grow, play and enjoy their childhood but it also burdens their education and future potential and exposes them to physical and sexual violence.
This unequal distribution of labour among children contributes to the construction of girls identities and how they perceive their role into society. As such, girls are raised to believe that their work is less valuable than that of their male brothers and that their place is at the house doing domestic duties, what limit their ambitions and future potential.
. . .
Dodota Dembel, Ethiopia
November 2017
© Ignacio Marin
4,152
