Women’s Empowerment in Kenya: SPRI Global Contributes to New National Measure

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics has published Women’s Empowerment in Kenya: Developing a Measure, produced with UNICEF Kenya and UN Women. SPRI Global contributed technical analysis to the report, which uses the Kabeer framework and KDHS 2022 data to build a national Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI).

The study identifies five domains for women in union — decision-making, attitudes toward violence, control over sexual relations, economic empowerment, and digital empowerment. For women not in union, all domains except control over sexual relations are used. A woman is considered empowered if she achieves at least 80 percent of the weighted indicators across domains.

Key findings

• 40.6 percent of women in Kenya are classified as empowered.
• Empowerment is higher in urban areas, among women with more education, and in wealthier households, revealing persistent gaps for rural and vulnerable groups.
• Trend analysis from 2014 to 2022 shows improvements in most indicators.
• Empowerment is linked to better outcomes for children, including school attendance, use of essential health services, and lower multidimensional poverty.

Policy directions
The report recommends expanding access to education for girls and young women, promoting digital literacy and access to technology, strengthening women’s agency in households and communities, addressing harmful norms related to gender-based violence, and providing targeted support for women in vulnerable situations, including women with disabilities, widows, and older women. It also calls for richer data on legal awareness, asset access, and mental well-being, plus qualitative evidence to capture lived experiences.

Read the full report (KNBS):
https://www.knbs.or.ke/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Womens-Empowerment-in-Kenya-Developing-a-Measure-2025_1.pdf