Household Decision Making Among Married Women in Kenya: A Latent Class Analysis

The present study examines the decision-making process among 4931 married Kenyan women. Using the Latent Class Analytical method, three household decision-making profiles were isolated. A majority of the women (45.6%) were in the category classified as Egalitarian and viewed decisions, other than those related to food, as a joint effort between spouses. The second largest group (28.9%) included women classified as Independent who made all household decisions other than the way in which to spend the husband's money. The third group (25.5%) was classified as Conservative and viewed household decisions as basically a man's responsibility, apart from decisions involving food to cook. Regarding multivariate analysis, most of the significant findings concerned the comparison of Conservatives with Egalitarians in which women were found to be less likely to endorse being Conservative with decisions. Their education, occupation, spouse education, and residence were found to significantly reduce the endorsement of Conservatism as compared to Egalitarianism. Contrary to expectation, those in rural as opposed to urban areas had increased likelihood of endorsing Egalitarianism compared to Conservatism. In a comparison of Independent versus Egalitarian classifications, women's participation in the labor force and household headship were found to significantly increase the odds of endorsement of Independence rather than Egalitarianism. Decision making among Kenyan women in general was found to be diverse and did not reflect the often touted overarching patriarchal structure.