Economic Growth and Gender Inequalities in Labor Force Participation and Education in Kenya

Abstract

The main development goal in Kenya’s Vision 2030 is to raise economic growth and reduce gender disparities. However, majority of the Kenyans still remain in poverty and gender inequality is widening. To achieve its vision 2030, the government need deliberate win-win policies that aim at dropping gender gaps and raising growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To provide the relevant information necessary for designing these policies, this study sought to probe how gender disparities in education and labor force participation impact on GDP growth using time series data for the period between 1990 and 2012. The research utilizes Autoregressive Distributed Lag model (ARDL) to examine how gender inequality is affected by the education system and labor force involvement on the growth of the economy. The key findings show that gender disparities in education had a depressing consequence on GDP growth in both short and long run. On the other hand, gender disparities in labor force involvement had no consequence on GDP growth. The study recommends that the Kenyan government should focus on policies that ensure that the girl child has access to not only primary and secondary education but also institutions of higher learning in order to increase gender equality.