Sowing in the Wind: Girls' Education In Kenya's Bungoma County

Abstract

Culture, as much as topography/location, policy and economic factors compound the plight of Kenyan girls in isolated rural areas despite advances of women globally. The intersectionality of gender and class privilege in education compounds endemic and enduring disparities in academic access and success. The steep road to academic success begins at birth and continues through access to schooling at the pre-primary, primary, secondary to tertiary levels, with numbers of successful female students diminishing at each educational rung. In this light, advocates for females in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs and careers sow in the wind given poor and inconsistent interventions at local levels.