Transforming women's political activism through self-help groups : the Kenyan experience

Abstract

Women have often been viewed as marginal to formal institutional politics of parties, executives and legislatures, as women's activities have largely been associated with the so-called "private sphere" of family and home. Furthermore, women's activities within the family as well as their extra-household activities, have been seen to be irrelevant to political inquiry, yet this neglects an important area of political activity. This thesis will argue that it is important to reconstruct the definition of what is "political" to incorporate a variety of women's activities by using a feminist approach to examining women's political activities.

As a result of a reorientation of our thinking about the political, in recent years men and women's participation in political structures in both First and Third Worlds has been reexamined. Of specific concern in this thesis is the fact that the roles of Kenyan impoverished women have not been adequately acknowledged and yet women's active role in grassroots informal structures have always been a part of Kenya's history. By situating women's role in politics from the colonial era to the present this thesis will highlight the trials and tribulations Kenyan women have had to face while they engage in political activism. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)