From pay gaps to harassment: The reality of women's working lives in Kenya

For many Kenyan women, paid work brings income, identity, and a stronger voice at home. It can also bring low pay, harassment, unsafe travel, and a second shift of unpaid care. That contradiction shapes working women's experience of gender discrimination.

The Kenyan law prohibits discrimination based on sex, pregnancy, and marital status. Daily working life often tells another story. The real question isn't whether women should work. It's whether leaving a job is a step towards freedom or an exit forced by helplessness.

When work creates freedom

A reliable wage can help a woman pay rent, support children, save money, or leave an unsafe relationship. Formal employment may also provide a pension, health cover, training, and references for future jobs. Those benefits aren't shared equally. An office worker with a contract has more protection than a domestic worker paid in cash, a market trader facing daily losses, or a freelancer whose income depends on customers and platform rules. Many women work without control over their hours, wages, or future.

Job quality matters. Employment creates freedom when it offers fair pay, safety, respect, and a credible path upward. It creates another form of dependence when a woman can't refuse abuse because losing her income would put her family at risk.

A decent job builds more than a bank balance. It gives women skills, professional contacts, confidence in public spaces, and experience making decisions outside the family. Savings can turn a crisis into a choice. Income alone, however, doesn't guarantee independence. A woman earning irregular wages without a contract, paid leave, social protection, or promotion prospects may still be one missed payment away from hardship.

Discrimination still shapes who gets hired and promoted

Kenya's Constitution protects equality and equal treatment. The Employment Act, 2007 prohibits workplace discrimination, requires equal pay for work of equal value, and protects maternity rights. Those rights mean little when a worker fears retaliation, can't afford a legal dispute, or lacks evidence.

Afrobarometer reported that 47 per cent of Kenyan men and 34 per cent of women aged 18 to 65 had paid full-time or part-time work in its 2024 survey. Care responsibilities and limited access to jobs kept many women outside the labour market. Only four per cent of respondents said women faced no barriers to entering or progressing at work.

The pay gap also remains clear. A 2023 study cited by Afrobarometer found that women earned 17.7 per cent less per hour than men. UN Women reports the same hourly gap and a 31.1 per cent raw monthly pay gap. Different estimates reflect different workers, sectors, and methods, but the message is consistent: unequal pay limits women's ability to save, change jobs, or wait for a better offer.

Promotion barriers often begin before a formal decision. Men may receive visible projects, travel opportunities, and client-facing work, while women handle support tasks that rarely lead to senior roles. Biased performance reviews can then make an unequal record look like an individual failure.

Pregnancy, harassment, and the cost of staying

Kenya provides 12 weeks of paid maternity leave. Some women still return to reduced duties, lost clients, or pressure to resign. Others face questions about marriage or children during recruitment. Sexual harassment can involve a supervisor linking promotion or continued employment to sexual conduct. It can also take the form of repeated comments, intimidation, or behaviour that makes work unsafe. Complaints may expose women to gossip, retaliation, or job loss.

Care responsibilities add more pressure. Women often manage children, older relatives, cooking, cleaning, and transport. Afrobarometer's Kenya findings identified limited flexible work and a lack of childcare as major barriers to employment. A worker who leaves early for childcare may then be judged as less committed. Women should not carry the blame for workplaces and public systems that treat care as a private inconvenience.

Leaving without creating a new crisis

Leaving may be necessary when a workplace is unsafe. A planned transition, however, offers more protection than an impulsive exit. First, identify the problem. A toxic supervisor may require documentation, a transfer, or a complaint. Low pay may call for a job search. Immediate danger may require urgent support and departure.

Keep contracts, pay slips, schedules, messages, workload records, and evidence of missed promotions. Trusted mentors, professional associations, labour offices, and lawful complaint channels can help.

A savings buffer also creates bargaining power. Training in accounting, health administration, technical trades, digital services, or management can widen future options when it matches local demand. Former colleagues and professional groups may provide references and information about an employer's pay, leave, safety, and promotion practices.

Work is liberating when women have fair pay, safety, dignity, and enough security to make decisions. Kenya has important legal protections. The harder task is enforcing them, improving job quality, and making sure women don't have to choose between enduring discrimination and risking financial survival.

The author is a veteran journalist and freelance writer based in Brampton, Canada.