Title: Economic Crisis and Women's Employment in Urban Kenya
Abstract: Traditionally, women have lagged behind men in terms of entering the labour
force, and in many countries, their earnings lag behind male earnings.
However, in recent years, many developed and developing economies have
experienced transformations in their labour market structures due to trends
such as globalisation and economic restructuring.
Indeed, the labour market in Kenya has undergone several changes since
the country’s independence in 1963. For instance, owing to a rapid expansion
of its education system, the supply of educated labour has increased
over time. Furthermore, since the 1970s, real wages have dropped steeply
and the implementation of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) in
1980s has been accompanied by changes in the structure of employment,
incomes and poverty. The economy has performed poorly as evident from
low GDP growth and declining real earnings and standard of living. Both
unemployment and informal sector employment increased (informal sector
employment increased from 20.0 per cent in 1988 to 79.1 per cent in 2007)
while formal sector or modern wage employment declined (from 77.5 per
cent in 1988 to 20.2 per cent in 2007).
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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