A comparison of the socio-economic status of female-headed and male-headed households in Kenya: Use of Ordinal Logistic Regression

With the many challenges facing the nations in sub-Saharan Africa, such as epidemics, civil wars, among others, there is an upsurge in the number of female-headed households. The socio-economic status of such households is low. Many studies in the recent past have attempted to identify the determinants of poverty in Kenya but did not do a comparison of these determinants across female-headed and male-headed households. This study has conducted a comparative analysis of the socio-economic status of the two types of households in Kenya applying an ordinal logistic regression model using data from Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (2008-2009). The results obtained indicate that education is the key determinant of socio-economic status. Both female-headed and male-headed households in rural Kenya are less likely to rise up the wealth index categories unlike in urban Kenya. Female-headed households in Nairobi are less likely to rise through the wealth index categories unlike the male-headed households in the same region. Also, both types of households in Western and North Eastern Kenya are the least likely to move up the categories of wealth index as compared to other regions. Formulation and implementation of proper policies would address these disparities