ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the intention of investigating the possibilities and significance of political activism among Kikuyu women of Kiambu district in the colonial era. It examines societies where women were the primary farmers when settler cash crop farming was introduced may reveal, first that a decline in food production occurs when cash crop farming replaces women's food production; second, it will may quantify how much women's labor subsidizes cash crop farming through comparing women's wage rates, costs of production, and market prices with the cost of importing food to replace domestic food production. The evolution of women's structural relationship to decisionmaking was from a passive role to an activist one in the large confrontation between Kikuyu and settler, African and European. Women's social and economic issues still do not receive priority rating in national policy. Nonetheless, the legacy of female activism provides models, ideals, and opportunity for future transformation.
