The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) recently made an announcement which has sparked mixed reactions online. The bank announced it had opened a branch in Addis Ababa which will have just women as staff.
Social media went agog with several comments, some of which called for the bank to reconsider this decision while others said it was a weak publicity stunt.
የኢትዮጵያ ንግድ ባንክ በሴት ሠራተኞቹ ብቻ አገልግሎት የሚሰጥበት ቅርንጫፍ በአንጋፋው የባንክ ባለሙያ በአቶ ለይኩን ብርሃኑ ሥም ከፈተ፡፡ pic.twitter.com/eCrDBE5gsG
— Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (@combankethiopia) April 15, 2019
Over the last year, Ethiopia has been lauded by many for giving women a chance to prove themselves. The country is the only one in Africa to have a female president. When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came into office, he reshuffled his cabinet. His current cabinet is made up of 50 percent women. These are just a few of the several offices held by women in the country.
You can read some of the social media reactions below.
Wouldn’t it make more sense giving directorial, Managerial and VP positions to women rather than this
— Mufo (@mufidarg) April 15, 2019
WHY segregation? I strongly believe the leadership of women, but it is against the equality principle to cause them to work alone! Monetization of gender shall be stopped!
— Qarrisa Qaawato (@GetuKawato) April 15, 2019
What is the point?
It would make sense for @combankethiopia to be more competitive by fixing basic service quality !— Tigist Hailu (@TigistAHAILU) April 16, 2019
… are males allowed to use the bank?…. obviously the management has no clue about gender equality when deciding this non-sense…. ???
— Berhanu Sisay (@Berhanu_Sisay) April 16, 2019
Rather How about improving their lives by paying better salaries which equals as much as men in this company?
— @abiy sufian (@abiyat) April 15, 2019
Its good idea to give key positions to women but this one is called segregation. What if the bank fails? Are you going to blame those women in position. Think twice
— EmbiBelEthiopia እምቢበል (@Embi_belu) April 16, 2019
See also:
Ethiopia builds Africa’s first waste-to-energy plant
Etan comics releases Ethiopia’s maiden female superhero comic ‘Hawi’
Aftermath of the Ethiopian Airline crash
