IMPACT OF A CASH ECONOMY ON COMPLEMENTARY GENDER RELATIONS AMONG THE SADAMA OF ETHIOPIA

This article explores the impact of an emerging cash economy on comple mentary gender relations among the Sadama of Ethiopia. Mutuality based on myth and socialization, with husbands having authority and control in the public sphere and wives directing production in the domestic s phere, has been disrupted. Men, through their control of land and coff ee production, have become the principle decision makers regarding the allocation of cash. Tension arises between spouses as wives acquire n ew aspirations and resist the new imbalance in authority. Possible sol utions for women are to find means of acquiring cash through increased marketing activities, land acquisition, cultivation of coffee, or inc reased subsistence production, but these alternatives are fraught with land, population, and control problems. Nevertheless, husbands seek t o make some funds available to wives, and both wish to preserve the hi storic gender complementarity.