'Gender Inequality in Kenya'

Home , Gender inequality, Women in Kenya

Name: KETER JOYCE CHERUTO

I.D.: 620168

Course: IRL 4900

Lecture: DR. FATUMA AHMED ALI

Task: RESEARCH PAPER

RESEARCH TOPIC:

‘GENDER INEQUALITY IN KENYA’

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...... i ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………...... ii

CHAPTER I: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………...... 1 1.1 Background of the study…………………………………………………………4 1.2 Statement of the problem………………………………………………...... 5 1.3 Objectives………………………………………………………………...... 7 1.4 Hypothesis………………………………………………………………………….7 1.5 Justification………………………………………………………………………...8 1.6 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………...... 8 1.6.1 Realism…………………………………………………………………...9 1.6.2 Radical feminism………………………………………………...... 9 1.7 Literature Review………………………………………………………………...11 1.8 Methodology……………………………………………………………………...14 1.9 Organization of the project………………………………………...... 15

CHAPTER II: KEY AREAS OF GENDER INEQUALITY IN KENYA

2.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………16 2.1 Health and education sector…………………………………………………...17 2.2 Economy and work place………………………………………………………20 2.3 Culture and religion……………………………………………………………..21 2.4 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….23

CHAPTER III: EFFECTS GENDER INEQUALITY HAS ON

KENYA’S DEVELOPMENT AND WHETHER THE

INTEGRATION OF WOMEN WILL CONTRIBUTE TO

THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

3.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….24 3.1 Effects gender inequality in Education has on Kenya‘s development …26 3.2 Effects gender inequality in the Work place has on Kenya‘s development………………………………………………………………...31 3.3 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………..35

CHAPTER IV: CAN EQUITY BE ACHIEVED THROUGH

RESOCIALIZATION AND CULTURAL REORIENTATION

IN KENYA

4.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….36 4.1 Resocialization …………………………………………………………………...37 4.2 Cultural reorientation …………………………………………………………...39 4.4 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………..40

CHAPTER V: GENERAL CONCLUSION

5.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...41

5.1 Recommendation………………………………………………………………...42

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………...... 45

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First, I thank the lord for granting me good health to be able to conduct this research.

I thank my friend (Swaleh) and members of my family (Chela and Limo) for their continuous support and encouragements through out the process I was writing this research.

ABSTRACT

This research project offers an analysis of gender inequality in Kenya. Despite many years of academic analysis and practical feminist activity, the progress towards achieving gender equity is painfully slow especially in Kenya. Given the scope and the speed of this change, it is essential to keep the change patterns of gender relations under continuous scrutiny to monitor the extent to which progress is being made towards women emancipation and their integration in development in Kenya. The subject matter of this research is prompted by the assumption that gender inequalities make Kenyan women to become victims and have no or little role in development due to their victimization. The general objective of this research is to analyze the key areas of gender inequality in Kenya; these areas include; the health and Education sector, Economy and workplace, Culture and religion. To this end, the specific aims of this research are to analyze the effects that gender inequality has on Kenya‘s development and whether the integration of women will contribute to the development process, And if equity in Kenya can be achieved through resocialization and cultural reorientation.

'Statistics alone cannot make policy. Some rich countries have no poor people but have high levels of inequality while some poor countries have low levels of inequality.'

-Dr Edward Sambili

CHAPTER I: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women categorizing them as either masculine or feminine. While gender inequality refers to a state of being essentially unequal or in equivalent; not at par with the rest. UNESCO (2003) Gender inequality is cause by discrimination and harassment which create states of inequality between individuals or groups of individuals (in this case men and women.)

Gender inequality is a very serious problem which affects almost all societies especially in Africa. Africa tends to suffer from this problem more due to how their cultural is structure in a way that promotes male superiority and female victimization.

This is done by the type of role African cultures allocate to men and women. Men are given the more prominent, sophisticated roles while women are given subordinate roles which are somewhat looked down upon. To do away with these discriminatory roles

African cultures have allocated to women, cultural reorientation has to take place.

However, this is a struggle yet to be overcome due to how African‘s value their culture and also how the men are not willing to let go of this discriminatory roles because it favors them thus making the process of cultural reorientation quite hard. They are not willing to look at the bigger picture of how giving women more favorable roles might actually help in the development process.

If Africans accept cultural reorientation to take place, the problem of gender inequalities through the distribution of cultural roles will end up ceasing and not be passed form generation to generation.

Kenyan is not an exception when it comes to Gender inequality. Gender inequality does exist in the Kenyan society and was promoted by colonialism where women were not allowed to run for political offices let alone have Identification cards. It was also and is still being promoted by the roles different cultures and society have allocated to Kenyan women thus making them subordinate to the men. Religion also has a role in promoting gender inequality in Kenya. Islam for example allows the men to have up to four wives but does not say anything about allowing their women the same number of husbands. How come the men are privileged to have a variety of women while the women are limited to only one? Should this be the case? In the researchers‘ opinion, the whole issue of marring more than one wife should be done away with if there are no plans to let the Islam women to do the same. Catholics also promote gender inequality in that, women are not allowed to be priests (fathers) thus they can not be popes. Catholic women can only be nuns, meaning that they can not conduct mass, they just set up the alter for the priest and help him to give sacraments. The nuns‘ roles are thus subordinating; making them to be the priests‘ servants. Is it right to deny women to play a more prominent role in church? A role where they can make decisions on their own and not have to follow what ‗the man‘ is saying?

Gender inequalities can be a contributing factor to the slow development in

Kenya. This is because, not all the human capacity is being used. Kenya has a large population mostly constituting of women, but the women are not being used or allowed to play prominent roles in the decision making process. Less than 30% of women are in parliament today and in the forty six years Kenya has been independent, no woman has ever held the position of vice president or even president. Shouldn‘t Kenya use all the human capacity it has to enable it to develop faster?

This project will thus be a comprehensive study of gender inequality in Kenya. In particular it will outline key areas of gender inequality which are;

 The health and education sector

 Economy and workplace

 Culture and religion

These areas are where gender inequality is at a high level in Kenya, thus this research will give the effects gender inequality has on Kenya‘s development and whether the integration of women will contribute to the development process. It will further discuss whether equity in Kenya can be achieved through Resocialization and Cultural

Reorientation.

Finally, the research will make recommendations for integrating Kenyan women effectively into the development process by doing away with victimization.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM

From the colonial era in Kenya, gender inequality has existed. Male superiority and prominence has been there and it has been quite pronounced. Women have been victimized through the forms of gender role society and culture have allocated to them.

Kenya since time in memorial has always been a patriarchal society. Women have been made to be victims by the existence of this patriarchal society that favors the men.

They have been denied some privileges which the men enjoy. Women during colonial era and post colonial era where not allowed to vote, let alone have Identification cards. They could not hold any political position thus there were no women in parliament. Decision making was left for the man. The man was the one who decided what was to be done at home, at work and generally every where. The woman was to follow those decisions with out questions.

They could not have ‗prominent‘ jobs like being engineers, pilots or doctors. They were forced to hold jobs that are somehow seen as being undermining like being teachers, nurses, or house wives. Jobs that paid less and victimized women; putting them at the mercies of men or to be dependant on the man.

Gender inequality also exist due to the way the Kenyan society has socialized it citizens. The type of societal role allocated to men and women have created a disparity that is pronouncing inequalities between men and women.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Gender inequality exists in Kenya because women are victimized by them not being given equal opportunities as their male counterparts. This hinders their efforts to give their best outputs in sectors like education and work thus slowing down the development process Kenya.

In a patriarchal society, like Kenya, women are seen to be of less importance compaired to the men. They can not access privileges which men are accorded freely.

These privileges promote Male supremacy and female victimization thus the existence of gender inequality.

In the education system in Kenya, gender inequality exist in that, there is a difference in the cut-off marks for men and women. The cut-off mark for women is less than that of men. This suggests that women can not perform as well as the men thus they need some sort of head start to be at par with the men. This promotes gender inequalities in Kenya and should be done away with.

When it comes to policy issue in Kenya, the constitution plays a role in promoting gender inequality. The current constitution allows for discretionary powers to be exercised in the area of immigration. The effect of this is that it limits women‘s rights to get passports and other documents without recourse to males (spouses and fathers). How come the woman should ask for permission before acquiring a passport or other documents? Is this fair? The constitution also promotes gender inequality when it mentions about citizenship. If a woman loses her Kenyan citizenship upon marriage to a foreigner, what is her status should he abandon her? Does she become a stateless person or can she re-adopt her Kenyan citizenship? Sure she may retain her Kenyan citizenship- but she cannot pass it on to her husband or to her children who may only acquire their father‘s citizenship. A Kenyan woman married to a foreigner does not pass on her citizenship to her husband, though this applies if a Kenyan man marries a foreign woman.

The fact that a Kenya woman cannot pass her citizenship to her children or spouse shows that there exist gender inequalities in Kenya. Gender inequality through the Kenyan constitution continues to be prevalent when it mentions that, the legal guardian of a child is the father and the mother only becomes such guardian once the father of the child dies.

The Kenya woman is denied right of being a legal guardian to her child while the man is granted that privileged. It is also interesting to note that a father can get the name of his children included on his passport without the mother‘s consent while the mother has to get the father‘s consent.

The existent of the patriarchal system, the discriminatory practices in the education system and the current constitution all show that gender inequalities do exist in

Kenya and women are victimized and not given the same opportunities as the men.

1.3 OBJECTIVES

The general objective of my research is to analyze key areas of gender inequality in Kenya; these areas include; the health and Education sector, Economy and workplace,

Culture and religion.

The following are the specific objectives of my research:

1. To highlight the effects gender inequality has on Kenya‘s development and whether the integration of women will contribute to the development process.

2. To understand whether equity in Kenya can be achieved through resocialization and cultural reorientation.

1.4 HYPOTHESIS

The hypothesis of this project is that gender inequalities make Kenyan women to become victims and have no or little role in development.

1.5 JUSTIFICATION

Gender inequality is becoming prevalent in the Kenyan society thus making it important to study this topic. The projects major interest is to give an insight on how women have been victimized with the existence of unequal treatment of men and women and how it has affected Kenya‘s development process.

Gender inequality has slowed down development in Kenya, if women were given equal opportunities as that of men not made to be victims, the country would be at a better position in terms of development. Equity is very important for any society to move forward and achieve some sort of development. Several steps need to be taken for equity to be achieved and thus the sooner Kenya start to take those steps the faster development will stop being a dream but a reality.

1.6 THEORATICAL FRAMEWORK

There are many theories that exist supporting this topic, but the theories the researcher will use for the sake of this project are realism and radical feminism.

1.6.1 Realism

One of the earliest books on Realist theory is Machiavelli's The Prince, which was written for the de Medici family. A later, more comprehensive book that helped build the foundation of Realist theory was Politics Among Nations, by Hans J. Morgenthau.

Political realism believes that politics, like society in general, is governed by objective laws that have their roots in human nature. In order to improve society it is first necessary to understand the laws by which society lives. Humans are in their nature evil and there exist a struggle for power. This relates to this research in that, due to the existence of struggle for power between men and women in society, inequalities are formed. In the

Kenyan society, the struggle for power has put men at the top thus victimizing the women. This power struggle makes the gender relations difficult as the gender roles are deeply defined in the Kenyan society.

1.6.2 Radical Feminism

According to Redstockings (1979:113) radical feminism is a current theory within feminism that focuses on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships producing what radical feminists claim is a male supremacy that oppresses women.

In France, the feminist theorists Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray explored ways of making new knowledge from the viewpoint of the female body, including the idea of women‘s writing (écriture féminine). This strand of feminism, which became known as cultural or radical feminism aims to challenge and to overthrow patriarchy by opposing standard gender roles and what they see as male oppression of women, and calls for a radical reordering of society. Radical feminists locate the root cause of women's oppression in patriarchal gender relations, as opposed to legal systems (liberal feminism) or class conflict (socialist feminism and Marxist feminism).

This theory relates to this research because radical feminist focus on the theory of patriarchy as a system of power that organizes society into a complex of relationships producing male supremacy that oppress women. With the existence of male supremacy in the Kenyan society, women are oppressed and feel like victims. This victimization of women is brought about by the way the Kenyan society is patriarchal in nature thus it work in favor of men.

1.7 LITERATURE REVIEW

These articles and books have touched on how the health sector and the issue of land owner ship have contributed to gender inequality not only to Kenya but to other developing countries. There are some gaps that have not been filled on this topic by previous writers especially to do with Kenya‘s issues of gender inequality and how it is caused by socialization, religion and culture and how this affects sectors like education, and Kenya‘s development process. Also the are no findings of whether the process of resocialization, cultural reorientation and re interpretation of religious scriptures and gender mainstreaming as solutions to achieving equity in Kenya will work, thus the aim of this research is to fill in the gaps and collect new findings on gender inequality in

Kenya that will benefit the society.

According to Doyal (2009) the problem of gender inequalities in developing countries has cropped up as a result of those implementing the health policies not being able to understand the meaning of gender and differentiating it from sex. She explains that there is no gender equity in most of the developing countries. The gender divisions in most of the societies which display males and the things they do as more valuable when compared to women has also led to the increase in the gender inequalities. For example, how most of the chores performed by men are paid for while those done by women are mostly house hold chores which earn them nothing. This has resulted to the women lacking resources hence are economically weak as compared to men. He further explains about gender inequality in the delivery of health.

Her article explains that there are several factors that make it hard for women in developing countries and specifically the poor women to access health services. These factors include lack of financial resources. This is because as earlier mentioned, the jobs they do earn them nothing or even very little to enable them to access health services. In order to make their visit to a health clinic possible, they might end up depending on a man. This makes them vulnerable to the man who can choose to discriminate and mistreat them because they are dependent on him. It also includes cultural practices that allow husbands to deny them permission to go to hospitals.

Besides, Doyal (2009) explains that women have felt discriminated against and marginalized from most economic and developments over the years. There have been calls for policies that would empower them and eliminate this marginalization. As much as some changes have been made that have helped improve their lives, their position in the society has not changed much. Besides, there still are inequalities in health and other services that deter women from achieving their goals. This goes especially for the women in Kenya where the term gender sensitivity has not yet found a meaning (Cornwall,

2007). To assess the problems faced by women as a result of gender inequalities in health services in developing countries, we need to first of all have a picture of the overall health services situation in Kenya and other developing countries.

There are other scholars such as Chant (2006) who argues that lack of economic resources makes it hard for women to seek proper health care and medical attention when they fall sick. The many heavy and exhausting household chores performed by women also have some negative impact on their health.

Apart from health, the unequal distribution of land promotes gender inequality.

Lack of economic empowerment of the Kenyan women by not allocating to them land causes them to be poor and thus is a cause of gender inequality in the country. According to Gwatkin (2001) Land is a fundamental asset for the economic empowerment of the poor. Women‘s land rights should be treated as fundamental human right. Women have been systematically removed from owning land. This increases the levels of poverty for the women in the country. Thus the women can not compete fairly with the men because they are not at par. They can not fully participating in the decision making processes despite their active participation in the production process alongside men and efforts must be made to ensure that attempts at gender parity do not remain at policy level but at the grassroots especially because there is an increase in women‘s vulnerability to poverty in

Kenya. Appropriate legal measures should be taken to ensure that men and women have equal rights in land before marriage (in cases of inheritance) during marriage and during its dissolution. This would ensure security of tenure for women and as a result lead to increased investment in land and decrease poverty thus leading to a step closer towards equity in Kenya.

1.8 METHODOLOGY

The research will be analytical using the case study of Kenya. The researcher will conduct an analysis of how women are victimized in Kenya and how this has affected the development process. Highlighting the effects gender inequality has on Kenya‘s development and whether the integration of women will contribute to the development process. The researcher will further analyze if the process of cultural reorientation and resocialization will help elevate the problem of gender inequality in Kenya.

The sources of information on Gender inequality in Kenya will be covered from academic articles in journals, the newspaper or the internet, and books through the USIU library and the Kenya national achieve and documentation services.

The methods of data collection will be use of observation and Library based research through use of secondary sources of data such as books, academic journals and online materials on women and men who feel and have experienced gender inequality in

Kenya

1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE PROJECT

This research project is organized into 5 chapters with an introduction and conclusion of the project discussed in every chapter. Chapter I provides the general introduction, background of the problem, objective, hypothesis, statement of the problem, literature review, theoretical frame work, and the methodology.

Chapter II deals with the key areas of Gender inequality in Kenya. This chapter attempts to analyze the key areas of gender inequality in Kenya which are; health and education sector, Economy and work place, Culture and religion.

Chapter III covers the effects gender inequality has on Kenya‘s development in some of those key areas and whether the integration of women will contribute to the development process.

Chapter IV provides an overview of whether equity be achieved through resocialization, and cultural reorientation in Kenya.

Finally, chapter V gives the general conclusion and recommendations as a way forward.

CHAPTER II: KEY AREAS OF GENDER INEQUALITY IN KENYA

2.0 Introduction

The key areas of gender inequality in Kenya are the health and education sector,

Economy and work place, Culture and religion. This are the areas in Kenya were women and men lack equal opportunities.

Gender inequality has contributed to the discrimination of women because of the implementation of policies, programs, religious and cultural practices which prevents the empowerment of women in social, economical, political and psychological development.

For instance as Mammen & Paxson (2000) explained, men have achieved more than women in the education and health sector of the economy. Traditional practices and customary laws have also contributed to the high rate of illiteracy in women in the developing countries as they prevent women from attaining education (WHO 2007).

Many communities for instance the Massai in Kenya have legalized early marriages through customary laws and therefore end up removing their girls from schools because they value the wealth they will earn from marring off their girls than educating them (UN

2001). There are some Campaigns with the aim of empowering women by providing them the same benefits and economy attributes availed to men however the results are painfully slow.

This chapter discusses and gives an insight of the key areas of gender inequality in Kenya.

2.1 Health and Education sector

Despite the fact that Kenya has embraced campaign against gender disparity, the girl child still lacks equal education opportunities as the boy child and in most cases though enrolled the girl child is forced out of school because of customary laws (Fennell

& Arnot 2007). According to the report compiled by UN Millennium Project (2005) boys who seek primary education and managed to complete this basic education are approximately two third more than the girls. Curran et al. (2006), explains that the increased rate of poverty in Kenyan communities has resulted to the male being given prevalence to education because of limited resources. Girls in Kenya still do not have the same enrollment in schools as boys. 22% of women have no education at all compared to

14% of men. Education of girls is considered the most efficient tool to create development. When women are educated their independence and job opportunities are enhanced and they can contribute financially to their own households as well as to the development of their countries.

When women are empowered with education and their health care is improved, there will be better role of women in child care as child mortality rates will decrease. This is because women will achieve independence in accessing productive resources such as employment and economic stability. Some women in Kenya dies from pregnancy related complications because of their illiteracy level which prevents them from accessing prenatal child birth and postnatal health care (White 2005). Provision of safe motherhood care to the women is highly ignored as most of these roles are delegated to mid wives who do not take into account safe measures to observe during child birth as can be noted in the World Bank & Gender and Development Group (2003).

In most developed countries including Kenya, women do not enjoy their reproductive and health care rights as do women in the developed world (United Nations

2004). According to Jacobson (2000), the reproductive health matters of women in Kenya have still not attained the required standards because of not educating the girl child. This explains the increased population growth in Kenya as most of the women cannot access contraceptives because of government legislations, cultural practices and traditional labour laws (United Nations 2004). Therefore, empowering women with education will increase their literacy level on a number of things including, the appropriate use of contraceptives to control the number of child birth they experience.

Women and girls have been an instrument to the impact of the world's largest epidemic; AIDS especially in the Sub-Saharan African countries (Case 2001). This has been attributed to gender inequality in regards to provision of nutritious food and education. World Bank (2003), statistics show that poor women who feed on low nutritional foods are the most affected by communicable, sexually transmitted, malaria and tuberculosis among other diseases. Health care treatment accorded to women is of lower standards than that accorded to the male as the health of the male is highly regarded because they are viewed as the stamina of the economy of Kenya. The study conducted by Curran et al. (2006), clearly depicts the challenges that girls face in relation to vulnerability in contracting HIV/AIDS and other disease as they are more exposed.

The study shows the girls as the care takers of AIDS victims and children left at home by their parents as they receive medical care in hospitals. This prevents them from attending school, in the end affecting Kenya‘s human capital (Curran et al. 2006).

According to Fennell & Arnot (2007), Women who are perceived to be

HIV/AIDS positive are more stigmatized by the society and family members than men.

They are even locked out of the community increasing their death rates due to lack of proper health care, nutritious food and psychological stress. Therefore, by educating women their status will improve as they will be less vulnerable and thus combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, communicable diseases and malaria among other epidemics that women face. (Buck 2005).

2.2 Economic and work place

Today, the key drivers of Kenya‘s economy are services (65.1 per cent), industry

(18.8 per cent) and agriculture (16.3 per cent), but the majority of Kenyans‘ participation in these economic sectors is marginal –often restricted to employment alone.

Unemployment, according to 2001 figures, is at 47 per cent, and most of the affected are youth and women. The participation of women and youth in the economy, or in reordering how it is structured, remains peripheral.

In Kenya women in the labour market mostly occupy low-grade positions.

Kenya‘s population is 52 per cent female; yet the elected MPs who are women in parliamentary account for 4%. That means 9 women but 201 men. This is very low compared to some neighboring countries like Rwanda. The same goes for other public offices. Among Kenyan elected councilors only 5% are women and among district commissioners less than 1 %. Only 13% of professionals in public service were women in 2002. Unemployment among young women in the cities is 275,000 compared to

75,000 young men (United Nations 2004).

Women should be given the same opportunities as men to obtain bank loans, start companies, run them, and to earn their own living. Women are reliable credit takers and schemes to help women enter into business are often successful. Efforts should be made to reduce the unpaid work done by women, for example fetching water, thus make women more independent. It gives them time to go to school or to take a paid job and help in the development process. Also, many small businesses in Kenya are run by women. These businesses can grow through fair trade and an increase in trade with the outside world which is important for economic growth in Kenya

2.3 Culture and Religion

The cultures in Kenya play a part in bringing about lack of equity in the society.

There is thus need for this culture to be reoriented so as to achieve equity especially retrogressive cultural traditional believes and practices.

Girls are reluctant to attend schools because of the traditional and cultural teachings embedded into them which defines household as the woman‘s place, Curran et al. (2006). He further explains that these practices are also used to the advantage of

Kenyan families as they use girls to earn them money. Furthermore he perceives early marriages and sexual abuse to the girls as a common norm in the Kenyan setting especially in the Massai community. This, abuses the rights of the girls from attaining education because of unwanted pregnancies and psychological constraints.

In some cultures, a woman can not inherit land, why is this so? Why is it that the man is the ones who are given access to inheritance and yet the woman is denied such an opportunity? When women have the same rights as men to own and inherit land, property and other assets, their independence is enhanced. This in turn contributes to the development of society. In Kenya, Women own only 5% of the land. The possibilities for women to get legal help to secure their rights must be increased.

In the Kalenjin cultures in Kenya, a woman can not articulate her concerns directly to men. She has to talk through the elders for her to be heard, yet the man does not have to do so. This type of gender inequality is what is contributing to the slow development process in Kenya.

In religion, the books were written by men and thus they articulate a male‘s perspective on things. They refer to God as he, why not she? This has thus brought about the lack of equity in our society today. These books should be reinterpreted for equity to be realized and development to be achieved.

Differences of culture or religion cannot be used as a justification for denying equal rights to women anywhere in the world. In a high profile speech given at Chatham

House in London, Ms Booth, a human rights lawyer the wife of former Prime Minister

Tony Blair, denounced the unequal treatment of women on religious grounds in some societies as a "distortion" of the true message of faiths. She said that in many areas proclaimed adherence to a specific religion or system of belief or culture is intimately tied to women's continuing discrimination and abuse.

Women's rights are a universal ethic that cuts across all cultures and all religions and imperative for our shared humanity. Therefore some traditional practices under which a woman cannot divorce without her husband's consent does not make sense.

What is striking is that there remain those who try to justify or excuse such discrimination that women face from religious and cultural practices. Kenyans simply can't go along with this view if they want to achieve development.

2.4 Conclusion

From the above facts, gender inequality in the heath and educating sector, culture and religion, economic and work place are at a high level in Kenya‘s. These sectors do not offer the same opportunities to women and men. They tend to favour the man by giving them first priority and ignore the women all together. By doing so, Kenya fails to utilize all it human capital and if this continues, this country will suffer greatly.

The next chapter will thus give an insight of the effect gender inequality in education and the workplace has on Kenya‘s development and whether the integration of women will contribute to the development process of this country.

CHAPTER III: EFFECTS GENDER INEQUALITY HAS ON

KENYA’S DEVELOPMENT AND WHETHER THE INTEGRATION

OF WOMEN WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT

PROCESS

3.0 Introduction

Gender equity is a development goal in its own right (it also has beneficial impact on other development goals). This can be seen, for example, by the signing and ratifying of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

(CEDAW) by a majority of developing countries as a way to foster development.

Gender equity reduces poverty, generates economic activity and improves the quality of health and productivity of the family unit. There can be no development, and no lasting peace in Kenya, if women continue to be relegated to subservient and often dangerous and back-breaking roles in society. Gender equality is vital for achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals. Women carry the brunt of poverty. They support and care for their families. They sustain life by collecting food, fuel, and water. It is time for development practice not only to honor those life-sustaining roles, but to promote women‘s rights, empowerment, and leadership actively at the center of economic development. 24

Gender equality and development go hand in hand. It benefits both women and children. Healthy, educated and empowered women have healthy, educated and confident daughters and sons. Gender equality will not only empower women in Kenya to overcome poverty and live full and productive lives, but will better the lives of children, families and the country as well.

Gender inequality in Kenya has adverse impacts on a number of valuable development goals. It affects areas like education and the economic growth. Gender inequality in education and access to resources prevent a reduction of fertility, of child mortality, and an expansion of education of the next generation. Gender biases in education thus generate problems for development policy-makers as it compromises progress in other important development goals.

Gender inequality also has a negative effect on a countries economic growth. This is caused by inequalities in the workplace and lack of utilizing all the human capital.

Economic growth enables the improvement in well-being measured by indicators such as longevity, literacy, and reduced poverty. Thus when there is no economic growth in

Kenya, the populations well being suffers. There literacy levels go down and there is increased poverty. With this, the countries development is affected.

We therefore see that economic growth is important for Kenya‘s development, because if gender inequality affects the countries economic growth the development of

Kenya is also affected. (Drèze and Sen, 1989; UNDP, 1996; Bruno, Squire, and

Ravallion, 1996; Pritchett and Summers, 1996).

This chapter will discuss the effects gender inequality has on the development of

Kenya in the education and the workplace and whether giving women the same opportunities as that of men will contribute to the countries development process.

3.1 Effects gender inequalities in Education has on Kenya’s development Economists have commonly focused on per-capita income as the primary indicator of economic development, although there are several other indicators of development. In mainstream economic theory, education often represents one important aspect of human capital and enters the production function with a positive coefficient.

Lower male or female educational levels translate into lower human capital. Thus, in theory, there is a direct effect from female education to income (or growth). There are also some solid arguments to support additional positive influences from female education to economic development beyond this direct effect. These include the impact on the mother‘s health, the child‘s health and education, and fertility rates. Empirical data have, in general, supported the existence of these indirect effects. Higher female education makes women better-informed mothers and hence could contribute to lowering child mortality rates and malnutrition (Aly 1990; Smith and Haddad, 1999; Klasen 2003).

Several empirical studies have focused specifically on the role of gender inequality in education as a determinant of income or growth (development of a country).

Recent work includes Filmer (1999), Esteve-Volart (2000), Klasen (1999, 2002),

Knowles (2002), and Klasen and Lamanna (2003). In general, the conclusions from these studies support the existence of a negative effect from gender inequality in education to income or economic growth. For example, Klasen (2002) uses OLS and TSLS estimations on data from developed and developing countries like Kenya and shows that gender inequality has negative influences both directly, by reducing human capital; and indirectly, through its effect on population growth and investment. Esteve-Volart (2000) uses Barro and Lee (1994) data set for about 87 countries to explore the relationship between growth in per capita GDP and gender inequality in primary schooling in the base year and reports that increasing the female to male primary schooling ratio leads to higher economic growth. Similarly, Knowles et al. (2002), use a neo-classical growth model, and cross-sectional data from a large group of countries (about 72), and show that higher female education contributes to higher labor productivity, whereas the effect of male education is ambiguous.

This studies show that gender inequalities in education does in deed have an impact on a countries development and Kenya is not an exception. These inequalities have an effect on Kenya‘s development therefore Kenya should seek to do away with inequality in the education sector.

Availing education opportunities to the girl child will help them to eradicate gender inequality because they will be in a better position to hold campaigns that argue against this discrepancy. It will also enable them to seek better health care. Education of women will result in more human capital and help in Kenya‘s development. The economy of

Kenya will in turn improve. Growth would also be promoted because, where access to education is skewed in favor of boys, many of the girls who are out of school will have higher levels of natural ability than many of the boys who are not. Thus, redistributing school places towards achieving greater gender equality would raise the net ability levels of those at school and have a compounding effect on society‘s future stock of human capital.

Evidence suggests that gender parity – in terms of the relative ‗stocks‘ of education held by men and women in the population – affects growth prospects independently of their absolute levels (Klasen, 2002), and that, particularly for Kenya because of it‘s lower levels of income, increasing the education levels of girls will have a favorable impact on economic growth (Dollar and Gatti, 1999). One of the likely reasons for the growth impact of female education in these circumstances is its positive effects on levels of agricultural productivity. This relationship has been well documented for many years (Jamison and Lau, 1982), but more recent evidence of its separately beneficial effects for the productivity of women and men in farming is beginning to emerge ( Smith and Haddad, 1999; Quisumbing, 1996).

Education institutions also play a key role in Kenya‘s democratic process by giving women and men the opportunity, the knowledge and the commitment to influence the nature and direction of society. Individuals cannot develop their full potential without education, nor can they participate fully as citizens. Excluding girls from school badly affects their sense of agency and constrains civic and political life. A very important consequence of society investing more in the education of girls and women is the changes brought about in household behaviors and practice. Some of these changes are highly valued by society. For example, the improved sustenance of children has been shown to be more strongly associated with increased levels of education of the mother than of the father. This is so with respect to the birth weight of children, child mortality, nutrition, morbidity, school entry at early ages and longevity in school. Equally, the schooling of parents (and in particular of female parents) increases the probability of their children – of both sexes – attending school. Thus, giving priority to educating Kenya‘s girls is a better way of ensuring its future sustainability over the years when the present school-age generation will themselves have become parents.

A further welcome benefit of the schooling of women concerns its well- documented negative impact on rates of fertility (Cochrane, 1979; Schultz, 1997). In some societies, particularly in Africa, education is associated with reductions in fertility, cumulatively for each additional year. The economic and social benefits of fertility decline are considerable. It lowers the dependency burden, which should increase national savings.

It increases the labour force as a proportion of the population and via its employment effects in turn helps to boost per capita incomes. The effect on economic growth can be considerable – some estimates suggest that up to 2 percentage points of annual per capita income growth in East and South-East Asian countries was due to this demographic effect of declining fertility (Bloom and Williamson, 1998). High female education in

Kenya could thus have contributed substantially to their economic boom.

All these direct and indirect benefits indicate that, where females have less access to schooling than males, society loses. Women should thus be integrated in the education sector. They should be given an equal opportunity as the men. Equal opportunity in school enrolment and in the subject they are taught. With this, more and more women will have access to education. With education of women in Kenya, gender inequality is half way solved, women‘s integration increases and these benefits Kenya‘s development process.

Important as it is for women‘s well-being and the development of societies, education alone is insufficient to eliminate the wide range of gender inequalities found in the Kenyan societies. Education may be an important precondition to women‘s empowerment, but it does not guarantee that empowerment. For this to occur, women must also enjoy equal rights with men, equal economic opportunities, use of productive assets, freedom from drudgery, equal representation in decision making bodies, and equal

3.1 Effects gender inequalities in the Workplace has on Kenya’s development The United Nations has formulated seven priorities to realize the Millennium

Development Goals one of them includes eliminate gender inequality in employment. It simply means recognizing the unique needs of working class men and women and formulating organizational policies and procedures that ensures that no one group is disadvantaged as a result of their gender.

In the Kenya‘s work place, there is some sort of glass ceiling that prevents women from having the same opportunities as the men. The term glass ceiling implies that invisible or artificial barriers exist which prevent women from advancing within their jobs or receiving promotions. These barriers exist in spite of the achievements or qualifications of the women and still exist when other characteristics that are job-relevant such as experience, education, and abilities are controlled for. The inequality effects of the glass ceiling are more prevalent within higher-powered or higher income occupations, with fewer women in Kenya holding these types of occupations. The glass ceiling effect also indicates the limited chances of women for income raises and promotion or advancement to more prestigious positions or jobs. As women are prevented by these artificial barriers from receiving job promotions or income raises, the effects of the inequality of the glass ceiling increase and causes a countries development to suffer.

Any one who has experienced gender inequality in employment will agree that it is very depressing to the extent that it can affect your self esteem and self confidence. In

Kenya the workplace policies that make women feel marginalized usually are centered around remuneration, maternity issues and care giving. On the issue of remuneration, women with the same skills and competencies as their male counterparts continue to earn less. Some employers to date still refuse to grant their female staff paid maternity leave. such a policy that targeted young women who wanted a family and a career are unjustified. Getting maternity leave with or without pay does not end the issue; too often once you resume from maternity leave, your employers may start looking at you differently. You get subtle and sometimes direct messages suggesting that they believe your commitment level has suddenly reduced. These inequalities in the workplace affect the woman‘s performs. This is because, instead of her getting motivated when she does a good job, she instead gets criticized or just put down. She is putdown by her earning a lower pay compared to a man that is as qualified as her or even less qualified. These destroys he woman‘s self confidence and can lower her input to the organization. With less input, the development of Kenya is affected.

Women are the primary care givers, and this is another issue that affects them at the work place. This is especially true when it comes to caring for young children, woe betides you if you have a child who gets sick regularly such that you need to take time off to care for him or her; that can cause you your promotion. Is it too much to expect that when a woman resumes from maternity leave her work load be reduced to enable her to leave the office earlier than the rest of the staff? The labour law in most countries actually makes it mandatory for nursing mothers to close earlier so they can care for their babies.

It is surprising why this is not practiced in Kenya. When women are given time to care for there young, the society benefits. The children grow up to be better citizens that offer more input to the countries development growth than ones who were not cared for or abandoned (Mikell 1997). Thus Kenya‘s mothers should be allowed to leave work earlier than the rest of the staff to care for their children and in turn the countries development will improve.

Another issue on gender inequality is on payment of medical bills for staff. Some organizations have policies to the effect that, pregnancy is ―self induced‖, hence antenatal expenses are not included in the medical cover they give to staff. Yet these same organizations claim they are socially responsible. Will organizations take issues of gender inequality at the workplace as seriously as most of them have taken Corporate Social

Responsibility? Or countries have to enact laws to force them to do so? What will compel organizations to set up policies that will ensure that women have equal opportunities in employment?

When the women in the workplace is not cared for by the organization ignoring to include her antenatal expenses in the medical cover, her health is put in danger. She might fail to get antenatal care because of the expense and as a result, she might fall sick or if the worst get to the worst, die. This reduces the human capital in the workplace and thus input is reduced. When input reduces, growth and development in the workplace suffers and thus Kenya‘s development also suffers.

It is unlikely that development will be fully achieved when the participation of women in the workplace including the political arena political process remains anecdotal.

More than half of Kenya‘s development challenges are entwined with equity. However much growth the society achieves, it is unlikely to be permanent if equity issues only receive lip service and piecemeal solutions (Makokha 2006).

It is therefore clear that the gender inequalities in the workplace do indeed affect

Kenya‘s development. Women should be integrated more in the workplace and be given the same opportunities as that of the men. As a result Kenya will grow and develop.

3.2 Conclusion

Men and women in Kenya should be given the same opportunity for development to be achieved at a higher rate. This is because as discussed in this chapter, gender inequalities do affect Kenya‘s development. Women should therefore be integrated and included in the decision making process because they are human capital that Kenya should utilize in order for it to achieve its full potential in terms of development.

There is increasing recognition of the significant role women play in the socio- economic and political development of the Kenya‘s society. However, the full participation of women in development continues to be hampered by a number of obstacles. These challenges essentially put them at a disadvantaged position (relative to men) in so far as realizing their full potential and freedoms is concerned. Therefore to fully achieve gender equity and development, more investment should be directed towards promoting more girls to be educated and include more girls in the work place by eradicate practices, and laws that perpetuate gender inequality.

CHAPTER IV: CAN EQUITY BE ACHIEVED THROUGH

RESOCIALIZATION, AND CULTURAL

REORIENTATION, IN KENYA

4.0 Introduction

Gender equity can be done away with by resocialization, cultural reorientation and reinterpretation of scriptures (Haugerud 2005). Through the study he conducted, results have shown that resocialization, reorientation and reinterpretation of scriptures can help achieve gender equity in some but not all societies. This is dependant on how deep rooted the socialization of that people is, how deep rooted they are to the orientation of there cultures and the scriptures in the holy books. It is also dependent on the size of that society. The larger the size, the less chances this strategies will work.

This chapter will discuss, resocialization, reorientation and reinterpretation of scriptures and whether these strategies can be a way forward for equity to be achieved in

Kenya.

4.1 Resocialization

This is a sociological concept dealing with the process of mentally and emotionally "re-training" a person so that he or she can operate in an environment other than that which he or she is accustomed to (Schwartzberg 1987). The process of resocialization is the learning of new norms and values. Learning these norms and values enables people to adapt, though newly learned things may contradict what was previously learned. If the Kenyan society is resocialized, whereby people are taught new norms and values, gender equity will somewhat be achieved.

During resocialization, people learn how to modify behavior to fit the new situation.Resocialization is a two-part process. First, the staff of the institution tries to erode the residents' identities and independence. Strategies to erode identities include forcing individuals to surrender all personal possessions, get uniform haircuts and wear standardized clothing. Independences is eroded by subjecting residents to humiliating and degrading procedures. Examples are strip searches, fingerprinting and assigning serial numbers or code names to replace the residents' given names. The second part of resocialization process involves the systematic attempt to build a different personality or self. This is generally done through a system of rewards and punishments. The privilege of being allowed to read a book, watch television or make a phone call can be a powerful motivator for conformity. Conformity occurs when individuals change their behaviors to fit in with the expectations of an authority figure or the expectations of the larger group.

No two people respond to resocialization programs in the same manner. While some residents are found to be "rehabilitated", others might become bitter and hostile. As well, over a long period of time, a strictly controlled environment can destroy a person's ability to make decisions and live independently. This is known as institutionalization, this negative outcome of total institution prevents an individual from ever functioning effectively in the outside world again.

Resocialization in Kenya can not work as a means of achieving gender equity.

This is because Kenya is a large society with millions of people. To erode all the individuals‘ identity or use means of reward and punishment on all the population in

Kenya to achieve resocialization is impossible. Most of the population will not be rehabilitated but instead they will be bitter and rebellious and this will not solve the situation but worsen it. Further more Kenyan leaders will not be able to offer a strictly controlled environment for resocialization to occur. This would have been possible during the Moi‘s era but now, the Kenyan people are more aware of there rights and what to do when there rights are infringed. The Kenyan people are no longer willing to be treated as a group but as individuals, therefore forcing individuals to surrender all personal possessions, get uniform haircuts and wear standardized clothing as strategies to achieve resocialization will not work. These strategies are used in the Kenyan army and they do work but they can not work for the larger population of Kenya.

4.1 Cultural reorientation

The Kenyan cultures as discussed in chapter two does play a part in bringing about lack of equity in our society today. There is thus need for these culture to be reoriented so as to achieve equity especially retrogressive cultural traditional believes and practices.

Retrogressive cultural practices and believes in Kenya that give the woman less opportunities than the man and make her to be subordinate to the man should be done away with. The gender roles that subject a woman‘s place to be in the kitchen, or refuse her right to own property such as land are retrogressive and should be done away with.

The Kenyan woman should be allowed to own property and be granted the same opportunities as the Kenyan man. Therefore, cultural reorientation can be a sure way to achieve equity in Kenya.

However, cultures are deep rooted in the Kenyan people. Most of the people in

Kenya still practice and believe what there culture advocate. Therefore the process of cultural reorientation in Kenya will be a positive step to achieve equity but it will take quite some time. It will take time to convince the Kenyan people to be culturally reoriented and the benefits of cultural reorientation. The men especially because it is them that benefit from those retrogressive cultural believes. The Kenyan men therefore will need quite some convincing to accept cultural reorientation.

Cultural reorientation has worked in Tunisia and Morocco. They have changed the overall institutional framework, granting women more rights with respect to marriage, authority over children, divorce, freedom of movement, dress and access to property.

This suggests that persistent discrimination can be removed without undermining one‘s culture. Cultural reorientation can therefore work in Kenya as a means of achieving gender equity.

4.3 Conclusion

We have a long way to achieve equity in our society today but at least there are several solutions that are leading to it. One of them is cultural reorientation as discussed earlier. Gender equity can be achieved by the Kenyan people doing away with retrogressive cultural practices. However, too many reform programs fail due to their heavy focus on women‘s needs, overlooking the fact that societies based on persistent discrimination generate advantages that men will not sacrifice easily. Engaging men in reform, providing incentives and perhaps even financial compensation are important for equity to be achieved.

To achieve equity in Kenya, the strategies of resocialization can not work. This is because resocialization does not prosper with large populations. It can only work in small societies or groups. Therefore, Kenya can not use resocialization to achieve equity.

CHAPTER V: GENERAL CONCLUSION

5.0 Conclusion

This research project analyzed the gender inequalities in Kenya. It gave the key sectors where gender inequality is at a high level in Kenya. The effects gender inequalities have on Kenya‘s development and whether the integration of women will contribute to the development process. It also analyzed whether the use of strategies like socialization and cultural reorientation can help Kenya achieve gender equity.

In the second chapter, it showed that in deed gender inequalities in the education and heath sector, culture and religion and economy and the work place is at a high in

Kenya. The women are not granted the same opportunities as the men and they are in turn victimized. They are treated subordinate to the men. Moreover, the patriarchal society of

Kenya also promotes these gender inequalities.

The findings presented in chapter three are in favor of the hypothesis. The chapter analyzed how gender inequalities in the education and the workplace make Kenyan women to become victims and have no or little role in development. It showed how this victimization of women does affect Kenya‘s development and growth and how the integration of women can help the development process of Kenya. Gender equity is very important for a country to develop and have economic growth. Kenya thus has to be ready to integrate the women and include them in decision making for the country to move forward and develop.

Besides, this research project sought to analyze whether the use of resocialization and cultural reorientation can help achieve equity in Kenya. Reducing gender disparities may not be an easy task, but it is a feasible and necessary one. With coherent, sensitive and inclusive strategies like cultural reorientation, the kind of wasteful discrimination that denies women their rights and blights the development potential of whole countries can one day be removed in Kenya. Kenya‘s have to do away with retrogressive cultural practices and believes in order to achieve equity. They can do this through cultural reorientation. This research showed that the use of resocializations is not a very good strategy to be used by Kenya‘s to achieve gender equity.

5.1 Recommendation

As indicated in the first chapter, the ultimate goal of this thesis is to chart the way forward, by way of recommendations, in search for a favorable means of reducing or doing away with gender inequalities in Kenya in order to achieve growth and development.

While it is not easy to achieve gender equity, there are some steps that can be taken to move towards achieving it. The first step can be through the use of cultural reorientation as discussed in the fourth chapter. When retrogressive cultures are done away with, Kenya will be moving one step closer to achieving gender equity. However, the men can offer a lot of resistance when it comes to cultural reorientation thus, they need to be engaged in this reforms.

The kind of language that both men and women use some times shows lack of equity. For example when one says statements like:

-You hit like a girl

We should mind our language if we are to achieve equity. Gender justice in language, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. While in western society‘s gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over 3 decades, in developing countries like

Kenya, efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. To promote gender justice in language in Kenya, it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. Language is a tool used to perpetuate gender differences. Feminists have advocated against the use of sexist language. They caution against the use of discriminating, over-differentiating, belittling, demeaning tones when there is no corresponding male terminology in place. An example is words like slut and whore for promiscuous women yet there are no names given to the men.

We still struggle for equity in the education system. While tremendous growth has taken place, much more work is needed to achieve fairness. In the year that has elapsed, many institutions, including Harvard, have stepped up efforts to remove all subtle and unexamined biases in institutions in efforts to make universities welcoming to women.

Stanford's recent announcement to support paid maternity leave for female graduate students. Despite advances, unexamined biases remain within the culture of mathematics and science, many are held unconsciously by men and also by women—in university math departments as well as in our society in general. Progress is being made to improve gender equity in mathematics but that much still needs to be done. Kenyan educational institutions should strive to do away with the culture of saying that subject like Math‘s and physics are for men and women should only pursue languages and social sciences.

They should be ready to remove discriminatory practices in the education sector to help the countries developmental growth. They should follow the example of Harvard and

Stanford.

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