Women's plight in Kenya

from the Standard

Women have better saving habits, and run small businesses. But a new survey says many remain in poverty in Kenya. This story explains that the poverty continues despite policy changes to try to help. - Kale

By Macharia Kamau

The survey, Profile of Women’s Socio-Economic Status in Kenya, done by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) reveals that women operate 54 per cent of all enterprises and more women tend to save compared to men.

Poverty, however, is higher among women, with 50 per cent of them in rural and 46 per cent in urban areas being poor. IEA attributed their plight to poor enrolment of girls in secondary schools and higher institutions of learning.

"Poor participation in higher education leaves women in low paying jobs where they cannot move up the corporate ladder to decision making positions," said Mr Kwame Owino of IEA during the launch of the report.

According to the report, women’s enrolment in universities stood at 39 per cent in 2006.

"There are considerable disparities among universities depending on programmes offered. Arts-based courses attract high participation," says the report.

The effects of low representation in education are evident in the labour market structure, where women are under-represented in most of the sectors.

Domestic roles

Other than limited access to education, the report attributes low participation of women in the labour market to their demanding domestic and reproductive roles.

This locks them out of high level economic activities, leaving them to operate small enterprises, which are relatively flexible and allow them time for conflicting domestic roles.

"Although women operate 54 per cent of the total enterprises in the country, they dominate wholesale and retail, rural manufacturing and urban agriculture sectors while men are well represented in such sectors as urban manufacturing, financial services and transport," said Ms Eldah Onsomu, a researcher with IEA.

Those operating small enterprises have difficulty accessing credit especially from mainstream financial institutions. Onsomu said although 49.9 per cent of those with access to credit are women, much of the advances came from micro-finance institutions and informal mechanisms. Women are still disadvantaged as most of the financial institutions are located in urban areas and do not assist them expand beyond the micro-level.

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