Everything is not sawa sawa: Abuse and informal employment in Kenya

Abstract

Violence against women and subsequent gender-based violence are issues that plague the world, harming women’s wellbeing as well as that of their families. Thirty-nine percent and twenty-one percent of Kenyan women have experienced physical and sexual violence, respectively, in their lifetimes. While there have been contested studies showing that employment can both increase and decrease the risk of suffering from violence, particularly in domestic settings, this study examines how a Kenyan woman’s experience of violence is likely to affect her level (formal or informal) of employment in the future. The results of this study indicate that emotional abuse, having a partner that drinks, educational attainment, living in a rural setting, and age are significant factors in a woman’s probability of working. Conditioned on working, experiencing controlling behaviors from a partner, educational attainment, justification of violence, ethnicity, income rank, partner’s occupation, and age at first marriage influence a woman’s probability of working informally. These results vary based on the type of employment studied, but can have wide-ranging consequences for the economic development of Kenya and empowerment of Kenyan women.