Women\u2019s Changing Opportunities and Aspirations Amid Male Outmigration: Insights from Makueni County, Kenya

Mary Crossland,Dave Harris,Tim Pagella,Ana Maria Paez Valencia,Luke Dilley,Leigh Winowiecki,Kai Mausch

doi:10.1057/s41287-021-00362-8

Abstract

In Makueni County, Kenya, an area experiencing intensifying migration flows, we investigate the aspired futures of rural men and women using a novel methodology combining a narrative-based survey tool, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. Our findings indicate that, in the absence of men and presence of norms restricting women's movement out of rural life, women are becoming increasingly engaged in farm management. Women’s aspirational narratives focused on commercialising farm activities, likely reflecting their changing agricultural opportunity space and new realities as farm managers. We highlight that only considering aspirations at the household level overlooks differing individual contributions, agency over various household income streams and individuals’ changing roles throughout life. Based on our findings, we make recommendations for further aspirations research including explicit consideration of intrahousehold heterogeneity and how individual strategies and aspirations interrelate and are negotiated at the household level to build an overall livelihood strategy.

Highlights

Developing and scaling new agricultural technologies is widely considered an essential pathway for increasing the productivity of smallholder agriculture in lowincome countries and to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of ending poverty and hunger (Pingali et al 2006; Vorley et al 2012)
Data consisted of 138 short aspirational narratives from 88 women and 50 men living in Makueni County, Kenya, and were supported by several additional co-located datasets from a land restoration project, including four focus group discussions (FGDs) on men’s and women’s
We contribute to growing evidence that multiple social dimensions, including gender, age and household position, intersect to shape an individual’s opportunity space and aspirations for the future

Summary

Introduction

Developing and scaling new agricultural technologies is widely considered an essential pathway for increasing the productivity of smallholder agriculture in lowincome countries and to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of ending poverty and hunger (Pingali et al 2006; Vorley et al 2012). Development-focused agricultural researchers have paid considerable attention to identifying the factors that constrain or enable the uptake of new innovations, resulting in an extensive list of adoption-related variables (Feder et al 1985; Mwangi and Kariuki 2015). These tend to centre on observable characteristics such as a farmer’s access to information, markets and complementary inputs and resources, including land, labour, capital and credit. Even when such factors are considered, they are rarely understood in the broader livelihood context that, for many smallholder households, often includes non-agricultural components

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Conclusion