Challenges Facing Kenyan Women

Chapter Two: Challenges Facing Kenyan Women Active female role in the political field is considered as an indicator of the development of a country. Despite the fact that Kenya's constitution 2010 addresses the problems of women on the bases of gender equality, women still face socio-cultural, political andeconomic that hinder their aspiration for gender-free representation in decision-making organs. Cultural perceptions, lack of resources, gender-based violence, poverty and illiteracy are amongst the most influential factors that contribute to the marginalization of Kenyan women and the low rate of their political participation. In this chapter, the focus will be on these challenges which will be divided into three main barriers.

(1) Socio-Cultural

Most Kenyan men and sometimes women believe that women cannot participate in high positions and mainstreaming political fields as they are considered as home maker as they play only subsidiary role, most African cultures insist that men are superior to men and women's only job is a children care taker, actually most Kenyan women still believe that their marital status will be stable only when they give birth to male child . In addition, studies in Africa showed that women's social obligation will negatively affect her political career because family role of women takes significantly more time. As many Kenyan will give priority to families rather than their work, women prefer to start building up their careers after the growth of their children or after the death of their husbands which will be reflected on the political field. The majority of Kenyan women who works in the political field are either widowed, divorced or never married which explains the relevance between female's success and husband support . Another dimension of the socio-cultural barrier is that women themselves lack the courage to run for a political position, they believe that women are not strong enough to take on a powerful position due to

However, education in Kenya is not available to both genders equally so kenyan women suffer from the lack of education. Education help women to understand the nature of politics and their rights, therefore, men discourage the idea of having equal educational bases because this will increase women awareness of politics and will help them to access resources, political participation and involvement in decision making bodies which in turn will threat male positions in the political system . Due to this problem of education women are not capable of competing politically with men on equal footing as the high level of illiteracy will make it diificult for women to understand the complex electoral process. "In Kenya, studies showed that the higher the level of education, the wider the gender gap in favor of males"