From Care to Careers: How Childcare Is Opening Doors for Women in Ethiopia’s Leather Industry

For many women in Ethiopia, paid work comes with a second, unpaid shift. Childcare and domestic responsibilities continue to limit access to education, stable employment and career progression, particularly in labour-intensive sectors such as leather and agro-processing. As a result, many women remain at home, excluded from opportunities that could improve their economic independence and long-term prospects.

Addressing this imbalance is a core pillar of the Leather Initiative for Sustainable Employment Creation project implemented by United Nations Industrial Development Organization and funded by the European Union. The Leather Initiative for Sustainable Employment Creation, known as LISEC, works across abattoirs, tanneries and youth clusters to promote equal opportunities for women along the leather value chain. One of its most practical interventions has been improving access to childcare and encouraging workplaces to recognise the conditions women need to thrive.

At the Addis Ababa Abattoirs Enterprise, these changes have had a direct impact. Selamawit Alemayehu, now employed as a cleaner, has faced repeated barriers in her pursuit of stable work. Financial hardship forced her to drop out of vocational school, after which she migrated to Arab countries for domestic work before returning home. Her experience reflects the limited options available to many women when care responsibilities and economic pressure intersect.

Through LISEC’s support, the abattoir has taken steps to improve working conditions for women employees by facilitating access to childcare for those unable to afford private daycare. This intervention followed a gender analysis that identified childcare as a major obstacle to women’s employment and advancement within the leather industry. Alongside this, awareness-raising activities highlighted the economic and social value of women’s contributions at work.

The solution was practical and deliberate. The enterprise arranged access to a nearby government-run childcare facility located at a safe distance from the abattoir, reducing exposure to noise and waste. For Selamawit, this change has been transformative. Her husband takes their daughter to daycare in the morning, and she collects her in the evening. With childcare no longer a daily concern, she can focus on building her career.

She now aims to move into flaying, a better-paid role traditionally dominated by men. It is an ambition shaped not only by personal determination but by the removal of structural barriers that once made such goals unrealistic.

Across Ethiopia, women continue to shoulder most childcare responsibilities, restricting access to education and professional growth. By tackling these constraints directly, the LISEC project is enabling women to participate more fully in the leather industry, challenge entrenched gender roles and strengthen household and community livelihoods.

For African economies, where industrial growth and youth employment remain pressing priorities, such interventions offer a clear lesson. Sustainable development is not only about jobs created, but about the conditions that allow women to stay, progress and lead. As African industries evolve, recognising and supporting care responsibilities will be essential to ensuring that economic transformation is both inclusive and enduring.

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