Factors influencing women's participation in Tourism :A Case Study of Murang’a County

Abstract

Research on gender equality through tourism has largely focused on the notion of women’s “economic empowerment”. There is need to understand the underlying factors involved in enabling women to participate in tourism development contexts and ensuring they benefit economically. In Kenya, as every county is geared to develop and diversify its own tourism products, the involvement of women is a critical issue that should be looked upon. Hence, the purpose of this paper was to explore factors that constrain and enable women’s participation in tourism activities. Chapter one covered the background of the problem, the problem statement, the research questions, objectives, problem statement, significance of the research and the limitations. Chapter two discussed the literature review with a theoretical and conceptual framework. Chapter three covered the research methodology of collecting data and interpreting it. Chapter four explains the findings and analyses data. Chapter five discussed the summary of the findings, recommendations and conclusion. The positive factors arising from this study will facilitate economic empowerment for women which will in turn contribute to the GDP of the country. This will in turn help in the journey to create sustainable tourism and alleviate poverty. This research provided a case study of Murang’a County which is located in the Central region of Kenya. It’s a county with relatively low tourism activities but with potential new product development. As a young upcoming tourism destination, Murang’a needs to position itself by having tourism services stakeholders pull together and maximize on the county’s resources sustainably. The taskforce will have to include a fair proportion of women so as to realize the implementation of the county’s tourism plan. The objectives of this study were to find out factors that hinder women from participating fully in tourism and determine ways to empower them. The research was carried out on a sample size of 44 individuals from the target population in Murang’a town and its environs. It adopted a descriptive research design. The primary data collection was done through a semi-structured questionnaire. It included both quantitative and qualitative data. At the end results were collected, analysed and interpreted to bring out relevant information. Recommendations were made to help bridge the gap and solve the problem.