Rights and Gender Issues: a Philosophical Investigation of Inequality of Opportunity to Ownership of Wealth, With Special Reference to Women in Kisii.

Abstract

The rights and gender issue is probably one of the topics that preoccupies the minds of people at various levels world wide. Governments and non-government organizations are engaged in various heated debates trying to solve gender related problems that have existed in their society for centuries. One of these problems is inequality of opportunity on the part of women either to participate in the production of goods and services or to enjoy the ownership of wealth generated from their labour.This thesis addresses itself to this problem of gender inequality.It attempts to analyze critically some of the reasons that have been advanced in support of inequality. To do this, the study has selected a specific community in Kenya, the Abagusii, who, to this day, culturally practice gender inequality against women as regards ownership of wealth. The study has focused its attempts to that specific inequality of ownership of wealth pertaining to land and livestock. It has critically analyzed the reasons given by this community for the perpetuation of this inequality.The analysis has revealed that all the reasons advanced in support of this inequality are unjustifiable. The analysis shows that, if anything, the reasons advanced are intended to promote and perpetuate male chauvinism. The study has also shown that the emergency of feminism, though its main aim is to fight for gender equality in all aspects of life, helps,to some extent, in propagating inequality.In summary, the layout of the thesis is such that Chapter One begins with an ethnographic survey of the Abagusii as they are the subject of the study. Then it sets the problem and lays the objectives of the study and the methodology applied:Chapter Two deals with the Literature review in which a critical analysis of some of the reasons advanced in support of gender inequality by some of the eminent scholars is attempted.Chapter Three focuses attention on property ownership among the Abagusii as a community.Chapter Four critically examines some of the cultural beliefs about land and livestock among the Abagusii and Chapter Five attempts a critical examination of the reasons advanced by the Abugusii in support of gender inequality.In conclusion, Chapter Six examines the issue of feminism and its role in the propagation of gender inequality