The coming of age of the African girl-child advantage? Age, gender and firm productivity amongst micro and small enterprises in Kenya: Nurturing entrepreneurship and economic development in Africa

Over the last decade or so, there has been an emerging theme across the world that efforts to promote gender equality have focussed more on the girl-child and may thus have left the boy-child in oblivion. In much of Africa, since the late 1970s, governments and the civil society have undertaken substantial policy reforms and funded schemes to promote women’s and the girl-child agenda. Yet, as the girl-child that would have benefited from such efforts becomes the young woman of today, few studies have evaluated whether any catching up or indeed advantage has since materialised in economic performance and outcomes, especially amongst those electing to pursue entrepreneurship. At the same time, beyond controversial anecdotes, especially in popular media, there is little research examining the perceived new boy-child disadvantage. In addressing this gap, this study employs data from a small survey of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the garments sector in Nairobi, Kenya and investigates whether there are significant differences in labour productivity between firms associated with the intersection of the entrepreneurs’ age and gender. The study finds that while no effects are detected when evaluating gender and youth independently, MSEs led by young women are found to not have significant differences with those led by mature men, while those led by young men have significantly lower productivity. It would appear thus that while young women have caught up with the erstwhile privileged mature men, young men have fallen behind. This suggests that there is some merit in the boy-child disadvantage debate.