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. i 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 ii 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. 1 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? 2 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. 3 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