Gender disparities in Kenyan education

Before 1900, Christian Missionaries set up schools mostly along the east coast of Kenya, before swiftly moving inland. The main missionary settlements were in the present Central Province (Kenya), Eastern Province (Kenya), Western Province (Kenya), and Nyanza Province, particularly in the Central and Western Province; there were very few settlements in the Rift Valley Province and parts of Coast Province.[3] This lowered concentration of schools in these districts continued over the decades.

Provinces of Kenya

1. Central 2. Coast 3. Eastern 4. Nairobi

5. North Eastern 6. Nyanza 7. Rift Valley 8. Western

The tribes that were penetrated most deeply by the initial missionary spring in the 1920s were the Luo, Luhya, Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, and Kamba.[3]

The Luo and Kikuyu were the first tribes to embrace Western systems,[3] including education and are also the groups that have advanced most greatly socio-economically along the tribes. Other tribes like the Kalenjin, who lived in the Rift valley, previously mentioned to have had less missionary presence, were slower to jump onto the Western education bandwagon because of their regional disadvantage. The spreading of education in Kenya was a political one as all tribes initially resisted the presence of missionary force until they realized the socio-economic benefits.[3] Education was a way to escape the forced labor and unfair market conditions under colonial presence. As Kinyanjui goes on to say, over time the different tribes decided to take more power over their educational systems. The first to do so were the Kikuyu. It seems that as missionary presence intensified in an area, more initial protest and subsequent acceptance of Western education and tribal advancement happened.[3] This phenomenon varied in strength in different regions. In regions that took longer to assimilate into Western countries and benefit from advanced schooling systems, the girls experienced greater education inequality. Kikuyu, Luo and other groups have benefited from this early educational influence experience greater academic achievement and female enrollment in the long term than in other tribes.[3]

In 1972 the Law of Succession was enacted that requires equal access to property at death when the owner dies without a will.[7]

All four major tribes in Kenya (Kikuyu, Luo, Luyia, and Kamba) are polygynous, patrilineal, and usually patrilocal.[7] For example, traditionally (before the 1972 Law of Succession) only male relatives could inherit land from their fathers in the Kikuyu, Luo, and Luyia tribes, with the exception of Kamba women being able to inherit from their husbands. However often women may not be able to assert their rights to inherit due to low literacy among women, expenses in court, and corruption.[7] According to Cubbins, although females are increasingly more involved in the productive labor of their households, in rural areas they are mostly in charge of agriculture production that goes back into the households, whereas fathers mainly have control over the cash crops[7] which have the economic power to support their children in school. Because women are more likely to invest their resources into their children's education, the traditional practice of males controlling cash crops poses significant concern for gender disparities in Kenya.[7]

One of the reasons the Kikuyus, the tribe to assimilate into Western education first, refused to enter into this formal education was because missionaries often put restrictions on groups who practiced female genital mutilation. This barrier kept Kenyans of many tribes from being able to access formal education from the missionaries.[8]

In some tribes, girls who receive formal education may be seen as breaking traditional tribal norms and rejecting the tribal lifestyle.[9] As Lesorogol observed in the Samburu people, educated women may differentiate themselves by enforcing conceptual differences along the dimensions of knowledge/capabilities and morality/sexuality.[9] Many times when educated women show knowledge of Swahili or English, the nation's national languages, or work outside the home, they are seen as showing off their superiority or not valuing traditional roles for women.[9] Educated women may be viewed by their tribes, family members and greater society as "worldly", a definition that often comes with associated connotations like disrespectful, arrogant, or even promiscuous.[9]

Even though the Law of Succession was passed in 1972, women are still denied access to disputing these rights in court due to corruption, lack of knowledge of their rights under the law, and court fees. Government aid to rural areas where technical skill in agriculture may be high is often not very much. This contributes to a lower amount of resources parents can invest into their children's education, especially daughters. Women and children make up most of these households in rural areas, where fathers may be absent for long periods of time. Until 1979, Kenya required people to pay for the first 6 years of schooling, lowering the number of children enrolled in primary schools. Importance of mother education. Of those who were chosen, males were more likely to be chosen than girls. This early disparity inhibited the growth of women in education because women are more likely to invest resources into providing education for their daughters if they have also gotten an education.

Beyond the primary school level, female teachers are significantly fewer in number than their male counterparts. Kenya represents a diverse group of religious groups. The second largest group is the Muslim group. Many Muslim families prefer for their daughters to be taught by females only and increasing the number of female teachers may subsequently increase female participation, as well as increasing the number of female administrators.[1] For this to happen supplementary laws including those that protect maternity leave, equal pay, and discrimination in the workplace may have to be implemented. In the prestigious University of Nairobi, according to Chege and Sifuna, less than 20% of teachers are female.[1]

Rural areas and the specific ethnic groups they compose suffer from disproportionately low resources in education and receive significantly less funds from the government.[7] More schools with more female teachers could be created in rural areas and policies could be enacted to stem the surge of government funds to solely urban areas.

Since the land reform acts of the 1950s, it has been difficult for women to possess land, where before they had easy access through traditional kinship arrangements.[7] Government aid has also been low to rural areas and has not directly benefited woman.[7] According to Cubbins, men's education and women's education are both highly related to the education of both girls and boys, and so increasing general educational attainment should decrease gender disparities in education over time.[7]