Economic Crisis and Women’s Employment in Urban Kenya

Traditionally, women have lagged behind men in terms of entering the labour force, and in many countries, their earnings lag behind male earnings. However, in recent years, many developed and developing economies have experienced transformations in their labour market structures due to trends such as globalisation and economic restructuring. Indeed, the labour market in Kenya has undergone several changes since the country’s independence in 1963. For instance, owing to a rapid expansion of its education system, the supply of educated labour has increased over time. Furthermore, since the 1970s, real wages have dropped steeply and the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) in 1980s has been accompanied by changes in the structure of employment, incomes and poverty. The economy has performed poorly as evident from low GDP growth and declining real earnings and standard of living. Both unemployment and informal sector employment increased (informal sector employment increased from 20.0 per cent in 1988 to 79.1 per cent in 2007) while formal sector or modern wage employment declined (from 77.5 per cent in 1988 to 20.2 per cent in 2007).

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