Contextual Factors Affecting Gender Mainstreaming in the Public Sector: Ministry of Education, Eastern Province, Kenya
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Date
2012
Authors
Kirima, Lucy Karimi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Gender mainstreaming as a key strategy for promoting equality was adopted as an
international policy in the Fourth World Conference at Beijing, 1995. Many studies show'
that in the decade following Beijing, a great deal of energy and resources were put into
gender mainstreaming implementation. Despite the tremendous progress in policy
development and abundance of information available on gender mainstreaming, reviews
and evaluations show a huge gap between policy commitments at Beijing and actual
implementation. The purpose of the study was to establish the contextual factors affecting
gender mainstreaming implementation in the public sector. A descriptive survey research
design was used in the study. The target population consisted of the provincial and
districts gender coordinators and the heads of public secondary schools in Eastern
province. Eastern province was selected purposively among other provinces in Kenya
because of low transition rate from primary to secondary schools. A total of 211
respond~nts were sampled through purposive and random sampling techniques. A
questionnaire and an interview schedule were used to collect primary data. Descriptive.
statistics were used to summarize the properties ofthe mass data that were collected from
the respondents. Factor analysis was used to determine the factors that were used in the
study namely; strength of strategies, gender mainstreaming strategies, gender policy in
education, gender disparities in education and understanding of the policy which were
used in logistic regression analysis. Logit regression was used to determine the effect of
the factors on gender mainstreaming. Among the five factors, only one factor (gender
disparities in education) affected gender mainstrearning negatively. All other predictor
variables: strength of strategies; gender mainstreaming strategies; gender policy in
education and understanding of gender policy in education affected gender mainstreaming
positively. From the fmdings, it is evident that Gender policy in education is not being
implemented effectively in the public secondary schools and there are several external
and internal factors affecting gender mainstreaming in the education sector which
includes; inadequate commitment from top-down to the institution, lack of understanding
of the gender concept, inadequate training and awareness for teachers, gender imbalance
and inadequate training for Board of Governors and Parents Teachers Association,
inadequate resources and socio-cultural factors. The study concluded that the school.
heads, teachers and management were ill-prepared for the policy implementation, there is
inadequate support, ,training and awareness, poor system of monitoring and evaluation,
and that the policies and strategies outlined for secondary schools are appropriate and
satisfactory but requires balancing between boys and girls.
Description
A Thesis Submitted to the School of Business in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Human Resource Management of Kenyatta University, August, 2012