Culture and Its Influence on Socio-Economic Empowerment of Women in Kuria West Sub-County

Women economic empowerment is a prerequisite for sustainable development for pro-poor growth and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Unfortunately efforts to attain sustainable development through women economic empowerment are continually crippled by cultural influence which is usually discriminative against women equitable development in most societies in developing countries. In Kuria land, the situation is worse where womens development is discriminated by culture. The purpose of this paper is to identify cultural practices that influence socio-economic empowerment of women in Kuria west Sub County. The study was based on the theories of liberal feminism, Marxist feminism and radical feminism theory. The study employed descriptive research design on a sample size of 317 women who formed the target of the study. Simple random sampling was used while data was collected using self administered questionnaires and interviews. Finding from the study revealed that culture is still held dear in Kuria both by women and the community at large. Traditional and cultural values are used to define role of women in that society and most of the time these values and practices undermine women participation in socio economic empowerment in the area. The study also found that culture negatively influence women health seeking behaviour, education and socioeconomic empowerment. This paper therefore recommends advocacy which will incorporate the re-orientation of health workers, the implementers of gender sensitive programs towards methodology of dealing with culture before implementing some of the reproductive health programmes. The paper also recommends a greater commitment to work, while sensitizing the communities women empowerment in education, health and economic activities.