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My name is Daniel Worku Kebede. I was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our neighborhood is similar to many underprivileged neighborhoods of Addis Ababa, which are highly inhabited and filled with shanty houses. Despite our diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, our social lives were deeply intertwined. Our livelihood was based on small and informal businesses such as selling local beers and other everyday workings. I grew up in this neighborhood, witnessing people made their best effort to overcome poverty.

In my family, I am the youngest, and as a child, I had the opportunity to learn and spend more time with my older brother. He was an excellent storyteller who used to tell me wonderful tales about Ethiopian kings, battles, and interesting geographical information. Since then, I’ve developed an interest in Ethiopian and world history, and I hope to pursue a formal academic education in the future. When I finished high school, I enrolled in Addis Abeba University and studied history under distinguished teachers, which was the best opportunity of my life. After I graduated in 2010 hired by Arba Minch University as a graduate assistant in History Department. A year later I returned again to Addis Ababa University to pursue my Master’s degree in history. I finished my Master’s thesis with a rarely awarded grade ‘Excellent’ and moved back to Arba Minch University and served as a history lecturer for a decade.

My primary research interests are in social and religious history in general, with a special focus on women’s history that began while I was a Master’s student at Addis Ababa University. My thesis was titled “The Role of Women in Addis Ababa Mainline Evangelical Churches, 1960-2012”; and through my study project, I was able to speak with several women who endured persecution for their beliefs and made sacrifices, only to be rejected by male “chauvinists” later on. This gave me insight into the sacrifices made by women across a range of professions and helped me to truly sympathize with the struggles that women face in all fields.

Women have made significant socio-economic contributions to society, yet their role and history have long been underappreciated. They were marginalized by Ethiopian historiography, which gives better attention to upper class and a few elite women. Ordinary women of Ethiopia do not get the deserved place in historical study. This awareness, gained through my research for my Master thesis, further bolstered my motivation to learn and so came to believe strongly that academics ought to thoroughly and methodically study women’s status and roles. Their history must be told from their vantage point to highlight their experiences, struggle and worldviews mainly based on oral sources.

In the meanwhile, I came across the Women at Work ERC project. My interest is aroused by the project’s theme, which aims on women’s place and function in distinct and different labor patterns as well as the historical changes in the profession along with advancements in politics and technology. This scholarship will allow me to focus on history of women and their urban working conditions. In light of Ethiopia’s historical background, the accessibility of sources, and the significance of the research, my research proposal will focus on potters and weavers as case studies to cast light on women female urban informal workers.

In metropolitan regions, one of the most ignored and undervalued sectors where a large number of women works is the informal business sector. Growing up in impoverished circumstances, I was exposed to street vendors, beer vendors, weavers, potters, and other everyday workers who showed unwavering resilience in the face of adversity. Weavers and potters were among the urban workers who experienced social marginalization in the past, despite their significant socio-economic contributions to society. Their tenacity and the methods they employ to live and prosper motivated me. This early encounter has since inspired me to pursue full-fledged research.

My motivation for this PhD thesis is to investigate the involvement of urban women in the informal economy, specifically concentrating on potters and weavers. The study spans from the foundation of Addis Ababa in 1886 to the downfall of the Derg regime in 1991. The long chronological framework aims to illuminate the evolution, change, and continuity of women’s urban working lives from the early stages of urbanization to the imperial and socialist regimes. The study intends to adopt a bottom-up approach to illustrate more stories and experiences of everyday women by primarily relying on oral sources.

In addition, I want to look into how urban women workers in the informal sector have contributed to Addis Ababa’s socio-economic growth from the city’s early years and examine the complex relationships that women have with their families and the urban community. Moreover, the study will investigate the spatial issues and social exclusion that women potters and weavers have experienced in the city vis-a-vis government policies and initiatives aimed at improving their lot under various regimes. Lastly, it aims to reveal how women participate in the production process of weaving and pottery, how their products are marketed, and how they make a living.

The Women at Work Project excites me because it offers a fantastic chance to work with other academics and students to conduct innovative research on urban labour and gender history. I do not doubt that the team working on this research will be able to accomplish seminal work in women’s urban working lives in Africa. I am confident that our effort will achieve the project’s intended objectives and become a groundbreaking study for further academic work.