Household strategies for adaptation and change: participation in Kenyan rural women's associations
Thomas, B.P.
Africa, UK 22(4): 401-422
1988
DOI: 10.2307/1160349Document Number: 384399
The study uses case material to examine ways in which rural African households participate in local associations to advance interests in maintenance, accumulation or mobility. It draws on data concerning household involvement in rural women's voluntary associations in two communities in Murang'a District, Central Province, Kenya. The research is part of a larger study of local-level organizations and development in rural Kenya, carried out under the auspices of the Institute for Development Studies of the University of Nairobi in 1978 and 1979, with updates in 1982 and 1985. In includes household survey data from 200 households in Weithaga and Mbiri locations, as well as interviews with the governing committees of women's associations in these two communities and with a wide range of officials and leading citizens. The study examines households and women's associations in Mbiri and Weithaga for (a) the patterns of cooperation, reciprocity and exchange which these associations facilitate; (b) the impact of this strategy on the access of both women and the household to productive resources; and (c) the effect of this strategy on intra-household decision making and resource use. This study investigates participation in women's associations as a household strategy for survival and/or mobility, and identifies the ways this strategy is linked to both the resource base and the social stratification system in which the household is embedded. The specific argument presented here is that: women's associations assist women and their households with two of the most decisive constraints faced by African peasants: shortages of cash and shortages of labour; the impact of these associations on their members and their households varies according to the resource base of the community and socioeconomic attributes of the household; these associations serve very immediate and pragmatic concerns of every member to meet basic needs and foster the welfare of her household; analysis of the impact of Kenya's rural women's associations on the household should help understanding of their current role as well as their potential in the development process in Africa.