Effect of Women Group Membership to Poverty Vulnerability among Female Headed Households in Yathui and Central Division, Machakos District, Kenya

Abstract

This article examines the effect of group membership to magnitude of poverty among female headed households in Yathui and Central Divisions of Machakos District. The study adopted a descriptive and cross-sectional study design. The study was based on a sample of 80 female headed households, five key informants, four focused group discussions, six case studies and secondary data. Stratified and systematic random sampling was used to select the units of observation. The analysis of data was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings showed the calculated chi square value is less than the table value chi square (x2=3.2, df=1 p-0.04), this indicates that the two attributes are independent and not associated. In general there was no statistical significance between group membership and vulnerability to famine among the female heads.