ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Kenyan women who run small and medium businesses (SMEs), and their uptake of social media. Women in Africa, and in particular Kenya face many impediments in their day to day lives; in the workplace, in business, in leadership and almost all areas of social life. The barriers vary from poverty, little or no education, patriarchy, and deeply steeped cultural norms that assign the woman roles that tend to confine her to a small compartment from where she is unable to venture out and explore the world. By their use of social media, the women have become part of an online community that is competing for space, but, they are in charge and not afraid or timid about what they are doing. Kenyan women running SMEs have made their businesses visible and accessible through social media, as well as transacting directly with their customers.
