Empowerment or Control? Social Capital and Maternal Health Practices in Rural Ethiopia

This paper investigates the formation of women's social networks and their influence on maternal health practices. Based on 40 interviews carried out in a rural community in Ethiopia and guided by Bourdieu's definition of social capital, the study shows that women's ability to socialise was shaped by their economic status, institutional norms governing state-initiated networks and local associations, and gender-related lifestyles. Although social networks provide resources such as health knowledge transforming women's habitus in line with the modern healthcare system and empower them to give birth in health centres, they also exert a disciplinary function. This is primarily through sanctions such as the threat of exclusion or imprisonment, which encourage compliance with biomedical norms promoted by the state. Social networks also provide material support compensating for gaps in the public healthcare system, although they also risk increasing dependency among poorer women on neighbourhood relations. Although social capital can contribute to better maternal health outcomes, it cannot fully compensate for the structural constraints related to social and economic circumstances in which women live.