science

Women's health in Ethiopia

Women's health in Ethiopia is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Women's health in Ethiopia rather than just read about it. In short: Women's health in Ethiopia can be broken down into several sections: general health status, women's status, maternal health, HIV, harmful traditional practices, and violence against women. Background Ethiopia is the oldest independent and second most-populous country in Africa.

Key takeaways

Women's health in Ethiopia belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Women's health in Ethiopia to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Women's health in Ethiopia from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Women's health in Ethiopia can be broken down into several sections: general health status, women's status, maternal health, HIV, harmful traditional practices, and violence against women.

Background Ethiopia is the oldest independent and second most-populous country in Africa. A projection from the 2007 census, it has a total of 90 million inhabitants in 2015 (CSA 2015). The sex ratio between male and female is almost equal; women in the reproductive age group constitute 23.4% of the population. The total fertility rate declined from 5.5 in 2000 to 4.1 in 2014.

General health status in Ethiopia The average life expectancy for an Ethiopian has increased from 45 years in 1990 to 64 years in 2014, which is higher than the African average (58 years) but lower than the global average of 70 years. This makes Ethiopia one of the six countries that made top individual gains since 1990. The achievement is attributed to the dramatic drop in the under five mortality (U5MR) and an improvement in other socio-economic determinants of health. The U5MR has dropped from 204/1000 live births in 1990 to 64/1000 live births in 2013, the target for achieving MDG4 being 67/1000 live births. Thus Ethiopian has achieved the MDG 4 by the year 2013 well ahead of the proposed time for 2015.

Women's status in Ethiopia In Ethiopia, women of reproductive age constitute about a quarter of the entire population of 90 million. Around 80% of the labor force is engaged in agriculture, and 84% live in rural parts of the country. Poverty is multidimensional, and its impact is different on men and women. 43% of rural women aged 10 years and above are economically active, mostly in agriculture.

Women in Ethiopia highly contribute for the development of livestock production. But they have very little control on the income. According to the federal civil service commission report in 2005, only 33% of the civil servants were women and 98.2% of women employees were working in lower position. At federal level only 13% of the women were at professional level. In the Informal sector, however, 64.93% are women concentrated in a low paying job. Women in Ethiopia are engaged with the triple role of production, reproduction and household duties. On an average a rural woman will spend 15 – 18 hours a day on agricultural and domestic activities. Eleven percent of women are married to a man with more than one wife and Sixty-three percent of women in Ethiopia are married by age 18, compared with just 14% of men • 62% women and 18% of men age 25-49 were sexually active by the age of 18, i.e., Women start sexual activity about four and a half years earlier than men (median age of 16.6 years for women and 21.2 years for men)

Maternal health

Good progress has been registered in maternal mortality reduction, a 69% reduction according to UN estimates from the 1400/100000 live births in 1990 to 420/100,000 live births in 2013. Maternal wellbeing is crucial for the nations development. Majority of maternal deaths occur in the peripartum period. Deliveries attended by a skilled health care provider were shown to improve both maternal and neonatal survival. In Ethiopian most of the deliveries occur at home and unattended by skilled provider Obstetric fistulas remains a leading health concern for women throughout Ethiopia.The ending of obstetric fistulas has been named as a Sustainable development need for Ethiopia and a plan is in place with an achievement goal of 2030. It has been found that by furthering the age of first pregnancy, can play a major role in limiting the occurrence of fistulas. Child marriage is a prevalent practice, most commonly in South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia, child marriage which is identified as anyone under the age of 18, exists at a rate of 40.3 percent as of 2016. The prevalence of this practice increases the chances of exposure to sexual abuse, partner violence, and lessens exposure to educational and economic opportunities. The concern for obstetric fistulas exceeds its medical ramifications, but is also identified in increased ostracization of those with fistulas due to its social stigma. The main contributing risk factor for obstetric fistulas remains lack of awareness of fistulas and how to treat them. Amongst other risk factors including no skilled birth attendants, poor health-seeking behavior, poor referral system and transportation network, age and physical maturity, iatrogenic surgical damage, Educational status, sexual violence, poverty, and having child births too close together.

Obstetric fistulas if left untreated risk life long morbidity as well as possible psychological, social, and economic consequences. Currently the Hamlin Fistula Organization has five hospitals throughout Ethiopia and employs over 500 Ethiopians.

Women and HIV HIV Sero – prevalence in adults aged between 15–49 years in Ethiopia is estimated at 1.5% [5.5% urban, 0.7% rural]. However, the prevalence in women is about double than the prevalence in men, 1.9% versus 1%, respectively.

Harmful traditional practices Seventy four percent of women had a FGM out of which, 6% have their vaginas sewn closed. Around 8% of all marriages occur after through abduction.

Violence against women The most common forms of violence against women in Ethiopia include physical violence (intimate partner violence) and sexual violence. A study done in Kofele, (Oromia region, Arsi, Ethiopia) in 2004 showed the lifetime and the 12 months prevalence of physical violence among married women was 64% and 55%, respectively. Another study performed in North-west Ethiopia (Dabat High school) in 2005 revealed that sexual harassment was seen in 44% of the students and rape was experienced by 33.3% of sexually active students. At the tertiary level of education the sexual violence was also alarmingly high as this was also confirmed by a study conducted at Addis Ababa University in 2004 on more than 600 students, where sexual harassment was experienced by 58% in life time and 41.8% in the last one year, rape was experienced by 12.7% of the students, and 27.5% of the student had escaped an attempted rape.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Women's health in Ethiopia

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Women's health in Ethiopia claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Women's health in Ethiopia before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Women's health in Ethiopia ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Women's health in Ethiopia

In research: Women's health in Ethiopia appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Women's health in Ethiopia in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Women's health in Ethiopia is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Health in Ethiopia, Maternity in Ethiopia, Women's health by country, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Women's health in Ethiopia outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Women's health in Ethiopia in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Women's health in Ethiopia means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Women's health in Ethiopia out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Women's health in Ethiopia in simple terms?

Women's health in Ethiopia can be broken down into several sections: general health status, women's status, maternal health, HIV, harmful traditional practices, and violence against women. Background Ethiopia is the oldest independent and second most-populous country in Africa.

Why does Women's health in Ethiopia matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Women's health in Ethiopia?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Women's health in Ethiopia.