Influence of Gender Roles on Gender Mainstreaming Process in Recruitment Practice in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

In the last two decades, there have been numerous efforts by international organizations and national governments around the world to ensure gender mainstreaming in the public sector as well as in the private sector. In Kenya, the law requires at least 30 percent representation of any gender in public institutions. The purpose of this policy was to enhance better recruitment and fairness to women across government ministries and other public institutions. However, despite the formulation of policies to increase women representation in public institutions, gender mainstreaming and the representation of women in public institutions, still remain low. This study therefore sought to examine the influence of gender roles on women in gender mainstreaming process in recruitment in Nairobi County, Kenya. Moreover, this research adopted descriptive survey design. Additionally, target population was the heads of 16 women advocacy organizations in Nairobi County and 143 staffs in 10 departments in the County government of Nairobi. Stratified random sampling was used to select 112 respondents from target population. Moreover, the research employed primary data which was gathered using both semi-structured questionnaires as well as interview guides. Semi structured questionnaire generated quantitative as well as qualitative data, which was then analyzed by the use of diverse methods. In addition, the key informant interview generated qualitative data. The study used content analysis to analyze qualitative data and the results were presented in narrative form. Both descriptive statistics and also inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. Descriptive statistics was categorized into mean, percentages, standard deviation and frequencies. Inferential statistics comprised of correlation as well as regression analysis. Study results were given in figures and also tables. The researcher found that gender roles have a positive and significant influence on gender mainstreaming process in recruitment in Nairobi County, Kenya. Therefore, the study recommends that the heads of women organizations should enlighten women and show them their capabilities in relation to professional work. In addition, management in women organizations in Nairobi County should focus on encouraging women to fight for top positions in their organization since they are capable of influencing decisions and sustaining challenges.