GENDER DISPARITIES IN THE KENYAN LABOUR MARKET: IMPLICATIONS FOR POVERTY REDUCTION

Parts one and two of this paper deal with conceptual issues and focus on gender \nmainstreaming into investment activities for increased women’s employment and poverty \nreduction. The central argument here is that the mainstreaming of a gender perspective into \ninvestment activities is necessarily a long-term process which involves the integration of \ngender issues in all national and sectoral policies and programmes. The key to gender \nmainstreaming is to make the process a collective responsibility. Some of the essential steps \nin this process are the production of gender disaggregated data, the establishment and \nstrengthening of gender management systems, the commitment of senior management \npersonnel to the goal of gender equality as a reflection of attitudinal and behaviour change at \npersonal and institutional levels. \nThe discussion in part three brings to the fore the issue of women’s education and \ntraining. Available data show gender and regional disparities in education and training at \nprimary, secondary and tertiary levels. These data indicate women’s limited access to formal \neducation and lower adult literacy rates which undermine their capacity to participate in the \nformal and informal labour market on an equal basis with men. Part four shows the link \nbetween women’s education, employment and poverty reduction. \nThe analysis of gender participation in different sectors of the economy revealed some \nimportant patterns and trends. These include the fact that female labour force participation in \nthe modern sector has remained below 30% over the last several years compared to men who \nhold a disproportionately larger share of the modern sector jobs. The majority of women are \nemployed in the education and informal sectors. Those who work in the agricultural sector are \nusually engaged as casuals. Women’s overall lower level of education, limited skills, and \naccess to productive, resources, heavy domestic workload, cultural attitudes and segregation \nof the labour market are some of the factors associated with their limited participation in the \nmodern sector. \nGender representation in the Kenyan civil service also shows gross under-representation \nof women in top management and policy-making positions. This gender disparity calls for an \nAffirmative and/or Positive Action to deal not only with increasing women’s participation in \npublic and private sector institutions at all levels but also address the twin issue of women’s \nentitlements and cultural barriers which are at the root of their poverty and powerlessness. \nThe low budgetary allocations to women’s programmes also reflect lack of political will, \nimproper targeting and non-involvement of women in priority setting