ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about Kikuyu and Kamba women traders in the Nairobi area and looks at the implications for women's status of market trade in the 1980s. Gender differences in access to critical resources play a key role in convincing women to trade. Among the barriers to better opportunities are access to education and property. Women's lack of education limits their ability to secure reasonably well-paid jobs. Dependency statistics illuminate not only the burden that forces women into trading but also some of the ideology regarding women's and men's earnings. The age data show that women generally began supporting dependents at a younger age than men, reflecting both women's younger age at marriage and unmarried motherhood. In addition to statistics, it is helpful to look at the coping strategies of individual women to see how they managed to eke out a living, for the most part on extremely limited resources.
