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Can respect be key to gender justice?
Author(s) -
Østebø Marit Tolo
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9655.12752
Subject(s) - dignity , conceptualization , power (physics) , gender equality , sociology , economic justice , human rights , gender studies , feminism , political science , law , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , physics
Equality and respect are, together with dignity, considered foundational values in international human rights discourse. While equality in particular has been established as a widely accepted goal in the women's rights movement, respect is, however, less commonly invoked. Based on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork conducted among the Arsi Oromo of Ethiopia, this article examines the notion of wayyuu , a tacit moral model of respect and sacredness that is central to institutions and norms that have secured women certain rights and power. These norms and institutions represent a challenge to the liberal feminist conceptualization of gender equality that dominates international women's rights discourse. Drawing on theories of respect and on feminist and anthropological discussions of equality, I argue that even though there are certain limitations inherent in wayyuu , the sacredness it entails and the implications this has had for women's status and power among the Arsi Oromo call for an exploration of respect not as an alternative to equality, but as a complementary notion which to a greater extent could be included in global discussions of gender justice.