Abstract
Education of women in Kenya has improved steadily over the years with gender parity being attained in basic education. Enrollment of women in Kenya’s higher education has also increased, though slightly lower than that of men. This gap is more noticeable in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Representation of women in leadership, especially in senior-level management, is also low. Several internal and external factors continue to serve as bottlenecks to women’s advancement in higher education leadership. Kenya’s sociocultural factors and higher institution frameworks seem to impede women’s full access to higher education. The Kenyan Constitution and other government policies strongly advocate for gender equality, but equitable opportunities for women to advance into senior-level management in Kenya’s universities are still lacking. This chapter examines the current legal provisions on gender in the Kenyan Constitution and related policies to explore how they have provided for advancement of women across higher education leadership. Anchoring on the conceptual frameworks of traditional public administration and new public management, this chapter also explores Kenya’s higher education institutions’ frameworks to gauge their receptiveness to change, consequently determining the pace of gender mainstreaming and the level of gender equality.
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Wakiaga, L.A. (2022). The Advancement of Women in Higher Education Leadership in Kenya: Redefining the Foundation Pillars of Gender Equity Efforts. In: Wakiaga, L.A. (eds) Women’s Contribution to Higher Education and Social Transformation. Diversity and Inclusion Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95622-6_5
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