Bigger than men? Gender relations and their changing meaning in Kipsigis society, Kenya

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Abstract
This article examines why Kipsigis women today appear strong and determined although colonisation and commoditisation have led to an increase in their subordination. Inspired by studies that link cultural ideas about gender with actual social relations, I investigate how Kipsigis ideas about female and male interact with production relations. I argue that gender relations and meanings attributed to gender have altered radically during this century, and that changed economic and political circumstances have led to new struggles over the meaning and interpretation of gender ideologies. The article demonstrates how Kipsigis women manage to negotiate control over household resources by referring to and manipulating customary ideas about status and rights within the house property complex practised in pre-colonial society.