16:00 - 17:30
Room: Muirhead Room 109
Stream: Challenges and Survival Strategies within the Neoliberal Context for a Civilized Africa
Chair/s:
Rasel Madaha
“Work is Work”: The Gendered Dimensions of Securing a Livelihood in Central Kenya
Isabel Pike
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison

Drawing on 160 interviews with rural and urban adults, aged 20 to 65, in Central Kenya, this paper examines gender differences in securing a livelihood in a precarious economy. I find that amongst both men and women, there is a general discourse that “work is work.” Respondents frequently state that women are now working in typically male professions such as construction or motorcycle taxi-ing and less frequently, that men are working, for example, in hair salons. This discourse stands in contrast, however, to the clearly visible gendered labor market. With further probing, this disconnect between discourse and reality appears largely rooted in shifts around where money can be found and how much is needed. For both rural and urban adults, relying on the land for a livelihood is increasingly precarious and education costs for families are rising as post-primary schooling becomes the norm. Though the ways in which men and women obtain this extra income remains gendered with men tending to work certain jobs and women others, the understanding that money is in short supply and sorely needed leads both men and women to accept, at least in theory, that men and women are free to cross occupational gender lines if that work earns them income.


Reference:
Tu-A10 Neoliberal Context 2-P-002
Presenter/s:
Isabel Pike
Presentation type:
Panel
Room:
Muirhead Room 109
Chair/s:
Rasel Madaha
Date:
Tuesday, 11 September
Time:
16:15 - 16:30
Session times:
16:00 - 17:30