Gender role construction through birth ritual in Dorze community

This study examines the construction of gender roles within the birth ritual of the Dorze community, focusing on how these roles are expressed during the ritual. The study also examines the values associated with gender roles. Primary and secondary data sources are used.   Data collection methods include interviews, focused group discussions, and observations. To analyze the data, the study employs social constructionism and symbolic interactionism as theoretical frameworks. The analysis reveals that the community's birth ritual is rich in events that are specific to gender.  Being a man and being a woman is expressed differently in relation to fertility, decision-making, and care roles. As the finding shows, masculinity is highly attached to the legitimate inheritor, owner, and decision maker, whereas femininity is related to caring, which takes men as “breadwinner” and women as “homemaker”. Ethiopian Journal of Language, Culture and Communication, Vol. 11 No. 1 (2026): Article in Press