Household Strategies for Adaptation and Change

Many rural Kenyan women participate in women's associations as a strategy to help meet cash and labor shortages of the household, as well as to gain access to public goods for family members. This study draws on data from two communities in Murang'a District, Kenya, to consider a) the patterns of cooperation, reciprocity, and exchange which these associations facilitate; b) the impact of this strategy on the access of women and other members of their households to productive resources; and c) the effect of this strategy on intra-household decision-making and resource use. Evidence suggests that women's associations provide access to critical resources in shirt supply -- labor and capital -- and to public goods. The nature of this access varies according to both the resource base of the community and the socioeconomic position of the household. Women's associations are particularly useful to women in the lowest income groups and to women who are single heads of household, by providing new opportunities for them to earn, save, and invest, and offering them some control over cash income.