As the world marks International Women’s Day Nation Newsplex takes stock of sectors where women have made progress in the struggle for equality in leadership and examines the gaps that remain.
Below are facts on the status of women in leadership in Kenya in different sectors sourced from the National Assembly, World Economic Forum, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, Nairobi Securities Exchange, the Engineers Board of Kenya and Kenya Medical Practitioners, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, World and Dentists Council.
C-suite
Past global studies have found that there is a positive relationship between diversity (age, gender, race, etc.) in company leadership and management, and performance. Despite this revelation, it is lonely in the C-suite for women in Kenya with overall representation in boards and senior executive posts tipped in favour of men.
Only eight of 63 chief executive officers or managing directors of companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange are women. An even smaller number, four, chair the board of directors in the firms.
Past global studies have found that there is a positive relationship between diversity (age, gender, race, etc.) in company leadership and management and performance.
Stem
Women are grossly under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers despite solid gains in the share of females graduating from university in the fields.
Only one in three doctors is a woman. Female doctors constitute a fifth of specialist doctors, e.g. cardiologists, neurosurgeons and gynaecologists.
There are 167 registered consulting and professional engineers who are women compared to 2,418 men.
Just three per cent of over 800 aircraft maintenance engineers are women.One in 10 pilots in Kenya is a woman (air transport, commercial private and student).JudiciaryWomen judges are well represented in the magistrates’ courts but they are in the minority in the superior courts.Over half (269 out of 503) of magistrates are women. However, a deeper look at the figures reveal that pendulum swings in the opposite direction among chief and senior magistrates with 43 per cent (58 out of 135) of them being women.Two out of the seven Supreme Court judges (before former Chief Justice David Maraga retired) were women. There are 12 male and seven female judges in the Court of Appeal while there are 42 male judges compared to 40 female judges in the High Court.ExecutiveKenya has met the two-thirds gender rule at the Cabinet level but falls short at the principal secretary rank.Seven out of 21 cabinet secretaries are women in conformity with the […]
