Socio-Cultural and Economic Drivers for Women Participation in Leadership of Nyeri County Cooperatives, Kenya

Abstract

Social-cultural and economic drivers affect women's involvement and equal participation in leadership in cooperative movements. Although many countries have been able to develop the appropriate measures, implementations are still the major throwback to the realization of these development agendas. For sustainability, an enabling environment should be created to enable all stakeholders to actively take part in cooperative movement regardless of the various challenges. The study aimed to research on how the social, economic and cultural drivers determine women’s ability to participate in the running of and day-to-day activities of the cooperative movement in Kieni East Sub County, in Nyeri County, Kenya. The study used a descriptive research design to accomplish its objectives and the target population was 205 women. The study employed purposive sampling and the target members were identified and then a selection of the members done with regard to the study objectives. The study used primary data and secondary data. The data was collected by use of both semi-structured questionnaires and interview guides. Data analysis was conducted objectively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 was utilized to analyze the collected data. Data analysis employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis; quantitative analysis used both descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative analysis on the other hand used content analysis. The findings were presented with the help of tables, frequencies, and percentages. Pilot test of the measures was conducted against a prospective sample population to measure validity and reliability. Test re-test method was used to measure the validity of the research instruments. The study concluded that social-cultural factors affect women in participating in leadership positions in cooperative movements. It is therefore the mandate of every individual, the government and the non-governmental organization to look on how to create awareness concerning women in leadership in order to reduce the gap that has been evident in the study. Future studies should try to comparatively compare these results to other sub-county away from Mt. Kenya, or also seek to evaluate how these factors affect women's participation in a leadership position in other sectors like the private sector of employment.