Addressing Health Equity Challenges in Women's Care: Insights from Kenya

This chapter identifies and discusses socio-economic and cultural barriers to health care among low-income and rural women in Kenya. Its focus is on understanding and highlighting the concept of personhood, and how it intersects with the contextual economic realities, cultural beliefs and practices, and social expectations in shaping women’s behavior towards health care and promoting health care inequity. The chapter shows that healthcare facilities tend to use interventions from high-income areas, “one size fits all” and overlook the important role culture and communities exert on women, especially rural women, and women of low economic status in making health decisions. It also highlights personal attributes such as bias, cultural and professional incompetence, and financial status as contributors to inadequate care and the widening health inequity gap. Existing barriers to care are identified and resolutions are proposed to narrow the gap between intervention and implementation. Incorporating understanding and proficiency in the cultural and social expectations surrounding women's health-seeking behavior, alongside local community, institutional, and healthcare provider knowledge, will result in care that is rooted in, collaborates with, and serves the needs of the communities and women it serves. The chapter summarizes how socioeconomic and cultural barriers impact prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Specific intervention strategies that take into account local cultural realities affirm the influence of community. For a deeper understanding, a comprehensive conceptual framework is designed on the relationship between women's health decision-making and health inequity.