Pastoralist milking spaces as multispecies sites of gendered control and resistance in Kenya

Abstract

This article details the gendered micro-politics of livestock management in a pastoralist community in southern Kenya. It centers on traditionally underemphasized women’s spaces within homesteads and women’s livestock caretaking activities therein, and in so doing demonstrates how gendered labor is co-constitutive of gendered norms and resource access norms. Moreover, in focusing on access to cattle, access to milk, milk use, and decision-making concerning these cornerstones of livestock-based economies, it illuminates the variety of women’s responsibilities and challenges regarding resource management, food security, and wellbeing. Drawing from an ethnographic mixed methods research project, including an in-depth focal household study, household surveys, intra-household surveys, and interviews, this article also illuminates the norms, rules, and institutions governing gendered labor and resource management decisions in the gendered, multispecies spaces of milking. Findings presented here reveal how processes of rule-making and rule-breaking around milk management (access, use, and sales) come to be, why they are challenged or perpetuated, and their impacts on everyday gendered practices during rare times of plenty and more frequent times of hardship. These findings contribute to literatures that highlight the importance of understanding spatialized and gendered intra-household dynamics for reducing inequities in food systems.