Influence Of Women Participation In Group Activities On The Empowerment Of Communities

Abstract

The various activities that women groups engage in influence the empowerment of communities. Women participation refers to the act of women getting involved in the various entrepreneurial processes or activities through their groups that would either bring economic, social and political changes to their lives, their families and ultimately their communities. This study aimed at examining the Influence of women participation in group activities in Kajiado North Sub County, Kajiado County in Kenya. The study objectives were; To establish the influence of women participation in income generating activities on the empowerment of communities; to assess the influence of women participation in political activities on the empowerment of communities; to assess the influence of women groups participation in environmental conservation activities on the empowerment of communities and to establish the influence of women participation in trainings on the empowerment of communities. The study was influenced by the fact that women engage in various activities through groups but their efforts have not really impacted in their communities making their activities to seem insignificant. The target population consisted of women drawn from 378 groups registered in Kajiado North Sub County; 5 Uwezo fund coordinators; 6 ministry staff/government officials and 5 National Government Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) officials. The study employed a mixed approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The sampling techniques used included; stratified sampling, simple random sampling and purposive sampling to derive a sample size of 194 from the women groups, 5 Uwezo Fund coordinators, 6 ministry/government officials and 5 CDF/WEF officials. Therefore the total sample size for the study was 210. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program to generate descriptive statistics such as frequency tables and distribution and regression analyses. Data was collected by the use of questionnaire and interview guides and organized into themes according to study objectives. Findings indicated that; community empowerment is influenced by women group participation in income generating activities as indicated by 73.9% of the respondents, political activities as indicated by 60.8%, environmental conservation activities as indicated by 58.7% as well as training activities as indicated by 48.5% of the respondents. Given that women play a major role in the family and community development, this study recommends that the government should upscale women involvement in entrepreneurial activities as this has a direct effect on community empowerment as well as the general development of the country.