THE POSITION OF ERITREAN WOMEN IN NATION BUILDING AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: REFLECTIONS FROM PRE AND POST-INDEPENDENCE

Women, despite constituting nearly 50% of the world population, have been marginalized from a variety of development activities since ages past. Likewise, Africa although home for 714,604,047 female population, their role in sustained development remain insignificant to date. Even so, many hold the view that there are changing trends at the moment with women starting to play new roles in a variety of development sectors. Eritrea, a young and newly liberated East African state, the country's women have been playing significant role in nation building and national development during the revolutionary struggle. Despite, their massive role as combatants and developers within the Eritrean Peoples' Liberation Front (EPLF), however, role transformation occurred in in the post-war period. The argument is therefore, following their entry into a deeply conservative society, the country's women were no more development partners, rather child bearers and home makers. The objective of this review is therefore, to highlight the magnitude of their contribution in nation building and national development before and after independence on one hand, and to suggest potential pathways for moving forward in the struggle to reverting their former role as active participants and development partners.