More women in towns and cities have taken over the role of household head.
This is according to the Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) 2022, which shows that the number of female-headed households in urban areas has increased from 27 to 31 per cent in the last eight years.
At the national level, a third of households in Kenya are still headed by women, as was the case in 2014. Similar to the 2014 report, female-headed households are more common in rural areas at 36 per cent.
The report shows that overall, the percentage of women who are separated or divorced is slightly higher than that of men at 11 per cent compared to 5 per cent for men.
Women aged 45–49 were more likely than any other age group to have lost a spouse, been separated or divorced. A high number of divorced, separated or widowed women remained active in the labour market.
Of 3,897 such women, 76 per cent were employed, compared to 7 per cent who were reported as unemployed. Elementary occupations were found to be the most common among divorced, separated or widowed women.
Apart from these occupations, the most common occupations among this category of women were service workers, shop and market sales workers (23 per cent) or skilled agricultural, fishery, hunting and related workers (17 per cent).
The head of a household plays a role in determining other characteristics of the household, such as the number of children in school and the distribution of family income.
