1. Background of the project

1Over the past decade (2010s, Gregorian Calendar, or 2002-2012 EC), the Ethiopian authorities have demonstrated their commitment to the development of higher education by supporting the establishment of a large number of universities across the country. The aim of this project is to accompany this movement by providing tools and materials to ensure capacity building in higher education in the fields of history and gender studies.

2This volume dedicated to the history of Ethiopian women is a pioneering project in Ethiopian educational documentation compiling the research that has been developed on the history of Ethiopian women up to the 2010s. Dr Margaux Herman initiated, coordinated and edited the volume. She began her career in Paris at La Sorbonne University then at Debre Berhan University as Assistant Professor. She is currently Assistant Professor at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco) in Paris, France. She has brought together senior and early career Ethiopian and international scholars to produce a unique volume that aims to support the development of education and quality teaching at university level. It covers a wide range of topics related to women’s issues in a historical perspective following critical, methodological and chronological approaches. The quality and expertise of the work produced is guaranteed both by the selection of the authors and by the scientific committee and board, composed of international researchers and professors in the field of Ethiopian Studies. This volume fills the existing gap in teaching materials in Social Sciences and Gender Studies Departments in Ethiopian universities that include a module on Ethiopian Women’s History in their BA curriculum. It provides a compulsory tool that does not yet exist for both lecturers and students in Ethiopian universities or abroad.

3Renowned scholars and academically recognised authorities in the field of Ethiopian history and women studies are part of the project. Professor Bahru Zewde, a pillar of social and economic history and a figure in Ethiopian studies and academia, has written a chapter, and Dr Alula Pankhurst, a prominent social anthropologist, active consultant in social development and currently Country Director of Young Lives has written the foreword. Nineteen researchers worked on the project in all its political, religious and social dimensions, exploring women’s issues related to religion, work, education, political and economic participation, health, sports etc. Each theme has its own dedicated section (called hereafter “Part”), made up successive chapters that either attempt to cover the period from antiquity to the present day, or to analyse different sub-themes.

4The French Centre for Ethiopian Studies (Centre français des études éthiopiennes, UAR 3137), the only permanent foreign research centre in Ethiopia, attached to the French Embassy and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), hosted and sponsored the project as part of its “Women and Gender in the Horn of Africa” programme, in partnership with the Centre for Gender Studies at Addis Ababa University. The African Worlds Institute (IMAF, Institut des mondes africains – UMR 8171) based in Paris, a joint interdisciplinary research institute for studying the African continent and its diaspora communities, also sponsored this project.

2. Reading guidelines: description and objectives

5This volume aims to strengthen the teaching of the history of Ethiopian women and gender studies by providing reference materials. It is most needed because history was first written by men. Furthermore, history has not only been written by men, but it has also been approached from a male perspective, and told with men as the main actors (be they kings, high officers, traders, craftsmen, writers etc.) while women have been kept in the shadows. If this statement is true all over the world, it seems to be particularly true in Ethiopia considering the early stage of development of women’s history in Ethiopian academic studies. However, with the exception of famous elite queens such as Ǝleni, Säblä Wangel, Məntəwwab and Ṭaytu, Ethiopian women have always been hidden actors in the country’s history, and they deserve to be more visible today, and that we teach and remember their achievements, status and role in Ethiopian society in a long-term perspective.

6This volume brings together historians and social scientists, both from Ethiopia and abroad, who share a common interest in developing the field of women’s history and gender in Ethiopia. They have worked together in order to address various methodological issues and topics in a single scholarly volume. This project aims to help both teachers and students. It provides the necessary scientific basis and methodological tools for understanding the role of women in Ethiopian society.

7This book examines the main aspects of historical research on women in the Ethiopian context, from the past to the present, with the aim of being used in an academic context as reference material. Some themes have not been included in the volume either because they are still untouched, because they have not been treated in a historical perspective, or because the authors were not available. For example, the theme of peasantry and agriculture only appears in the margins of this volume, even though James McCann and Dessalegn Rahmato deal with women in their works. Some chapters, especially those dedicated to contemporary issues could only provide a historical approach by drawing on the chronology of their institutional implementation. The volume includes both the primary sources highlighted in specific headings used by researchers studying Ethiopian women’s history and the few available secondary sources, i.e., historical literature, that contain such research or deal with the subject of Ethiopian women’s history. Finally, it highlights the challenges faced by historians working on women’s history. The main aim of this volume is to encourage students to continue their training and research careers in this still developing field of study, by highlighting the various opportunities available.

3. Editor’s note on references, footnotes, and style: a pedagogical choice

8As this is a volume aimed primarily at students as reference material, the editor asked the authors to select only up to fifteen main references in English or Amharic. They are located in the bibliography of each chapter under a specific heading called “References and further readings.” In fact, the selected references quote sources in other languages for further reading. However, some authors, especially on the contemporary period, had to propose longer lists of references in order to be able to cite all their sources, as their research is based on many official reports that have not yet been compiled in other previous works.

9Authors were also asked not to use footnotes, but to include their reference works at the end of each chapter under the heading “References and further readings.” Though unconventional in historical works, the editor’s choice might be controversial as history is based on evidence. In conventional history books, each statement is accompanied by a footnote to give scientific value to the research and to allow readers to check the information provided. The editor’s choice is based on a pedagogical purpose: to motivate students to read the reference works listed under the dedicated headings. Lecturers are invited to organise classroom activities for each chapter, asking students to find out where each piece of information comes from. A second activity could be to use the footnotes of each referenced article to find out which primary source the author based his or her work on. These two activities will help students to learn how to search for information in both primary and secondary sources as well as to understand the difference between these two types of sources. It will encourage students to read academic articles, to search for them in libraries and to understand the different uses of footnotes and citations.

10Finally, the editor asked the authors to select different types of primary sources used to conduct research on women that differs depending on the time period, topic and disciplinary approach. These are highlighted in dedicated sections. They are fully referenced but neither included in the general bibliography nor in “References and further readings”. Lecturers are invited to organise classroom activities on the different types of sources that are available to historians and social scientists for their research, depending on the period under study: different types of written documentation, archaeology, iconography, images, material documentation, oral testimonies etc.

4. Brief description

11This volume deals with the history of Ethiopian women from the past to the present. It is the first attempt of its kind to propose a scientific and academic overview of Ethiopian women’s history. It presents the different studies that have been carried out in this field of knowledge with chapters that synthesise previous research, present the state of the art of thematic studies or propose original research, as it is the case with the chapters written by Habtamu M. Tegegne, Derese Ayenachew, Marina De Regt, Thomas Osmond, Shimeles Bonsa Gulema and Samuel Andreas Admasie. However, all the authors have proposed original approaches and synthesis of their subjects. The book offers a history of the social, political and material conditions of Ethiopian women in different situations. It highlights the contribution of women to Ethiopian history and society in a long-term perspective. Each part (nine in total) has been designed to cover a specific topic, to follow a chronological order within or with successive chapters and to integrate as much as possible the diversity of the Ethiopian population. This volume can be a useful resource not only for teaching Ethiopian women’s history, but also for other social science programs dealing with the Ethiopian context, the African continent or for comparative studies.

5. Objectives for lecturers

12This volume will help lecturers to:

• Prepare their own course and syllabus according to their needs while having a variety of topics and historical periods on which to base their teaching.
• Have scientifically based material and a general volume that they can present to their students as the main support for their teaching.
• Motivate students to read academic articles and books by organising classroom activities and research essays on a variety of topics.
• Identify and work with primary sources according to the period and subject.
• Prepare their students for graduate programs in Ethiopian women’s history.
• Highlight the possibility of continuing their academic training in Ethiopian women’s history and gender studies.

6. Objectives for students

13This volume will help students to:

• Appreciate the achievements of Ethiopian women in history.
• Identify different women who have influenced Ethiopian history and know their role in the social, political and economic history of the country.
• Categorise sources for the study of Ethiopian women’s history.
• Discuss the deep-rooted elements of family structure and traditions that can be linked to the neglect and violence inflicted on girls and women in Ethiopian history.
• Respect human rights in general, value a just society and reject what remains of the dominant male mindset in order to find a state of balance in the whole process of educating girls.
• Recognise the social, economic and political participation of the Ethiopian women, and to pay attention to their present and future role in society.
• Understand the values of interdisciplinary studies.