MIGRATION AND CHANGING DIVISIONS OF LABOR - GENDER RELATIONS AND ECONOMIC-CHANGE IN KOGUTA, WESTERN KENYA

A case study from western Kenya is used to explore the links between l abour migration, rural economic decline and changes in key domestic re lationships. Twentieth-century transformations in the regional politic al economy, together with processes of differentiation, have been clos ely bound up with changes, and continuities, in relationships within h ouseholds, and in the ideologies which justify them. A central concept in the analysis is that of divisions of labour, which covers the divi sion of tasks, divisions of spheres of responsibility and authority an d contributions to the reproduction of the household. Changes in all t hese ha ie shaped, and have been shaped, by the trajectory of economic decline in the region. Changing divisions of labour have been slow, p iecemeal, non-uniform and non-linear. They have been the subject of in tense conflicts within households which have centred on questions of a ccess to and control over resources and in which, as well as power rel ations, ideas about rights and responsibilities have been crucially im portant.