Gender gap and gender inequality.

Gender inequality is defined as a perception or unequal treatment of people based on their gender (Huang et al.,). My assignment will focus on the following data measures of gender inequality across Kenya and the United States:

Business ownership.
Unpaid care and domestic work.

Employment

Kenyan women are underrepresented in the Kenyan job market. Only a third of Kenyans in formal employment are women. A study carried out by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics indicates that more men than women have secured job opportunities in the main areas such as Agriculture and manufacturing. Kenyan women do not receive equal pay for equal duties performed; thus, their spending power is low, and they have less or nothing to save (Mudi and Waswa, 2018). Women receive less than their male counterparts because organizations have been socialized to see women as dependents of men in their lives. One of the causes of inequality in gender payment in Kenya has been attributed to the fact that women take time away from the job to take care of their kids. Kenyan working mothers are victims of systematic disadvantages when it comes to payment and other benefits. Organizations see women as less loyal to firms because they are likely to exit their workplace during their childbearing period. With the negative perception, women are less likely to secure significant corporate responsibilities. Women with young children opt to take temporary jobs or the ones with flexible working arrangements; thus, they lose earnings growth associated with securing and maintain a permanent position. Kenyan women also prefer to work for smaller companies which have more flexible working hours, and they miss opportunities from big companies with good salaries and promising career growth.

Although the role of women in the United States of America has improved significantly, there are many disparities in the job market. For instance, women still earn less than men for equal work performed. Studies indicate that women are overrepresented in employment sectors with low wages(Blackburn, Jarman, & Racko, 2016). Just like the Kenyan market women in the United States of America have made slow progress in securing leadership positions. Although recession affects both men and women differently the recovery process for women is difficult, in 2013 women lost 115,000 job opportunities in manufacturing while men gained 94,000 positions(Borzaga, Salvatori, and Bodini, 2019).

Marriage

Although the legal age of marriage in Kenya is 18, many girls are married before their 18^th birthday. Gender inequality is the biggest driver of child marriage. Society somehow believes that boys are inferior to girls(Brides, 2020). Lack of education has been a critical driver of early marriage for women. Most girls who drop out of school are likely to end up married. Adolescent pregnancies also push children to the marriage. Parents marry off their pregnant daughters to safeguard the image of the family and receive dowry and fine payment from the man who impregnated the adolescent girl.

In the U.S., there are fewer reported cases of child marriage. Although some parents in the U.S. believe that marriage may be in their daughter’s interest primarily due to pregnancy, early marriage increases the teenager’s chances of living in poverty, mistreatment. The chances of dying during childbirth are also high.

Poverty

Poverty leads to gender inequality in some parts of Kenya because girls are seen as assets(Brides, 2020) in the sense that they can fetch dowry payment instead of being viewed as individuals with rights. In the United States women have continued to be underrepresented in well-paying jobs and overrepresented in low paying opportunities. Women of colour in the United States of America experience high levels of unemployment, poverty, and other economic hardships as a result of gender inequality.

Business ownership

Women-owned businesses make a significant contribution to the Kenyan economy, however, businesses owned by women are less likely to grow, and they are small. Education is key to business success; lower education levels disadvantage Kenyan women entrepreneurs. Women are less likely to enrol in public Universities, thus lacking entrepreneurial skills and depriving them of the knowledge to prosper in business. Managing employees is also a challenge for Kenyan women entrepreneurs. Compared to men women entrepreneurs spend most of their time taking care of their families thus leaving them with less time to manage their business and take advantage of training opportunities(RAO, V. SWAPNA & G.SUNITHA, 2012). Lack of land access to assets has also been a critical barrier to women entrepreneurs.

Small businesses owned by women in the United States also tend to be less successful compared to the companies owned by men. One of the barriers faced by women in the U.S. is the lack of access to funds and Federal contracts. The gender pay gap also contributes to women’s inability to be successful entrepreneurs in the U.S. Unequal access to funding opportunities leaves women with a small portion of venture capital and a few credit options.

Politics

Gender inequality in the Kenyan political system is very high. Kenyan political parties have consistently failed to support/nominate women for critical positions. On several occasions, women have been verbally attacked and physically assaulted during political campaigns. The Kenyan government has also failed to owner one third gender rule as directed in the constitution. According to the Kenyan law, women should hold at least one-third of all parliamentary positions and one-third of all appointed political positions (Agutu, 2017).

Although there is an increase in women representation in American politics, gender stereotypes are still a big barrier. Both male and female American voters believe that male politicians are likely to perform better compared to their female counterparts(Fiske and Hancock, 2016). In America women are considered to be political demography because gender is a primary trait around which people identify. Political analysts and strategists see the female vote as the one to be won, and that’s why you are likely to come across slogans such as Women for Romney, women for Obama etc.

Unpaid care and domestic work

Kenyan women spend four more hours than men carrying out household chores. These chores are comprised of cooking, cleaning, fetching water and more duties. Kenyan women also spend an average of five hours compared to an average of one hour for men. In Kenya, unpaid care remains unrecognized and absent from public policies. The inequality in unpaid care is also reflected in the formal employment sector, Kenyan women earn 68 shillings for every 100 shillings paid to men. The unpaid care for Kenyan women hinders their ability to enjoy decent employment opportunities, education, health and leisure. Due to the imbalance in these responsibilities Kenyan women miss out on opportunities such as political life, engagement in paid work, education and self-care.

Women in the United States spend more time on unpaid care work than men(“Data | The World Bank”, 2020). This is an implication that every minute a woman spends on unpaid care makes her lose one minute in market-related activities, education-related activities and investment-related activities. Biased distribution of care roles in America disadvantages women in career choices and economic empowerment.

Conclusion.

Gender inequality is an important subject to the entire society. Eradicating gender inequality is a sure way of increasing household income and reducing poverty and inequality. Governments should promote female participation in the labour market.

References

Agutu, L. A. (2017). Implementation of the two-thirds gender rule in Kenya: the implication for women in parliament

Blackburn, R. M., Jarman, J., & Racko, G. (2016). Understanding gender inequality in employment and retirement. Contemporary Social Science, 11(2-3), 238-252.

Borzaga, C., Salvatori, G. and Bodini, R., 2019. Social and Solidarity Economy and the Future of Work* This paper draws on a work that was previously published by the ILO and is available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_emp/—emp_ent/—coop/documents/publication/wcms_573160.pdf (Copyright © International Labour Organization 2017.). Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, 5(1), pp.37-57.

Brides, G. (2020). Kenya – Child Marriage Around The World. Girls Not Brides. Retrieved 4 August 2020, from https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/kenya/

Data | The World Bank. (2020). Retrieved 4 August 2020, from http://datatopics.worldbank.org/sdgatlas/SDG-05-gender-equality.html

Fiske, J., & Hancock, B. H. (2016). Media matters: Race & gender in U.S. politics. Routledge

Huang, J., Gates, A. J., Sinatra, R., &Barabási, A. L. (2020). Historical comparison of gender inequality in scientific careers across countries and disciplines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(9), 4609-4616.

Mudi, B. I., & Waswa, J. (2018). Analysis of political representation effects on subjective well-being of women employees in the county government of Kakamega. International Journal of Academic Research and Development, 3(6), 33-37.

RAO, B., V. SWAPNA, V., & G.SUNITHA, G. (2012). Women Entrepreneurs – Opportunities and Challenges. Global Journal For Research Analysis, 3(8), 1-2. doi: 10.15373/22778160/august2014/91