INFLUENCE OF WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN SELF-HELP GROUPS ON THEIR INCOME IN TIGANIA WEST SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Women’s participation in self-help groups’ activities aims mostly towards their empowerment. In Tigania West Sub-county, there was insufficient empirical literature that could be used to enhance support for the self-help groups by development agencies. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of participation in self-help groups on socio-economic empowerment of women. The study was guided by the family systems theory. Women groups that had been in operation for a minimum of four years and registered with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Department of social Development were considered. The study used descriptive and exploratory research design. This was important in enabling an objective description of the items as they are on the ground without any manipulation. The explorative research design on the other hand was key in enabling an exploration of relationships among variables. The target population was all women in self-help groups in Tigania West Sub-County in which accessible population was 3610 women from 25 registered self-help groups. A sample size of 150 was selected through stratified simple random sampling. The p-value less than 0.05 (significance level) indicates that participation in self-help groups has statistically significant influence on their income. The conclusion was participation in self-help groups helped in improving level of income amongst women in self-help groups. The study recommended that women groups to diversify their sources of income to ensure that they are not over dependent on agricultural activities. Article visualizations: