GENDER INEQUALITY IS THE NORM IN KENYA


Women face wrath caused by poverty

               
 Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘she doesn’t have what it takes.’ They will say, ‘women don’t have  what it takes.’ – Clare Boothe Luce.

Gender equality is a social order in which women and men share the same opportunities and the same constraints on full participation in the political, economic and the domestic realm. However, this remains to be a mere dream to the Kenyan woman. She is disadvantaged in the workplace, education, home and even in HIV infection prevalence. All this contributes to the increased poverty levels that surmount the female gender in Kenya.

In the workplace, men dominate the top managerial positions according to a 2010 study by Beatrice Osumbah -PhD on ‘Representation of Women in Top Educational Management and Leadership Positions in Kenya.’ Only 33.1% and 32.1% of top and middle management positions respectively were held by women. 55% and 51.5% of M.Ed and B.Ed holders respectively were held by women.

Reasons for the imbalance in the workplace range from cultural and religious practices, inadequate policy guidelines, poverty and lack of awareness. It is argued that women are not assertive enough, usually don’t want power and lack self-confidence. It is argued that they avoid situations where they risk criticism or receiving negative feedbacks. Fear of failure and reluctance to voice their opinions is another factor.

Entrenched cultural practices are related to the andocentric world. That is, the male world-view which elevates masculine pursuits. In other words, men are considered to be experts while women have to prove that they are.

Social-cultural beliefs also are key contributors to this. Women’s identities and roles have traditionally been associated with parenting and caring. Carrying out domestic duties take significantly more time and energy than those that most men are expected to do.

In the field of education, female illiteracy remains to be a drawback. It is not only in the secondary and tertiary levels but also with lack of primary level education where females are lagging behind.

Only 39% of female students who sat for their form four KCSE in 2010 managed ton qualify for public universities. That is 7,820 out of a total of 20,000 students. This is a positive step giving a ray of hope since gender gap has been narrowed down. However, when it comes to comparing the genders, females still remain behind.

With the HIV infection, women are the most affected. In 2008/2009 HIV prevalence among women was twice as high as that for men at 8% and 4.3% respectively. This disparity was found to be greater in young women aged 15-24 who are four times likely to be infected with HIV than men of the same age. One of the reasons behind this is that, Kenyan women experience high rates of violent sexual abuses.

It is high time Kenyan women stood firmly for their rights in the tough fight for equity.

          Remember, ‘More countries have understood that women’s equality is a pre-requisite for
                                      development,’ Kofi Annan, seventh Secretary-General of the UN, 2001 Nobel
                                       Peace Prize.

Comments

  1. JACOB-THE WRITER12 June 2011 at 23:59

    A good read!
    Well,I personally believe there are lots of long standing stereotypical fallacies labeled against the African woman.

    Weird conceptions like "A woman`s place is in the Kitchen" is perhaps still haunting our men,failing to accept the reality that we have today.And the reality is,women are equally capable academically,politically,and economically.

    Its not surprising a number of women featured in the top 100 Global thinkers published in the Foreign Policy Magazine,the year 2010.

    ReplyDelete

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