A Gender Transformative Approach to the Feminization of Migration

She’s not following, She is Leading the Way

For a long time, migration was told as a man’s story. Today, that story has changed.

Across the world, and in Kenya, women are no longer simply accompanying migration. They are driving it. They are making the decision to leave, pursuing employment opportunities abroad, and supporting families and communities through their work.

This global shift has a name: the feminization of migration. And it is transforming not only labour markets, but also the way we must think about migration policy, gender equality, and economic opportunity.

The truth is simple: women are not following migration trends. They are leading the way.

Women at the Center of Migration

Women today make up nearly half of all international migrants. In Kenya, the transformation is even more visible.

Between 2016 and 2020, more than 535,000 Kenyans were living abroad, and women represented roughly 53% of that population. A large proportion of these women migrate to Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman, where demand for labour in domestic and care sectors continues to grow.

For many Kenyan women, migration represents opportunity: a chance to support families, finance education, build homes, and create new futures. Remittances sent home by migrant workers sustain countless households and contribute significantly to national economies. Behind those remittances are women making courageous decisions to cross borders in search of economic independence. Yet the story does not end there.

Migration Is Still Shaped by Gender

Although women are increasingly leading migration flows, their opportunities are often shaped by deeply rooted gender norms. Up to 91% of Kenyan women migrating to Gulf countries work as domestic workers. Domestic and care work remains widely undervalued and frequently excluded from labour protections, even though it is essential to the functioning of societies and economies.

Care work is still widely perceived as “natural” women’s work rather than skilled labour. As a result, women migrants often enter labour markets that offer limited protections and where power imbalances between workers and employers are pronounced.

Many migrant domestic workers live inside private households, where isolation, employer-controlled visas, and restrictions on movement can create environments ripe for exploitation. These realities show us something important: the feminization of migration is not just about numbers. It is about power, norms, and systems.

Protection Alone Is Not Enough

For years, policy responses to women’s migration have focused largely on protection.

Governments and organizations have invested in pre-departure trainings, shelters and rescue services. These initiatives are important and often lifesaving. But they do not address the deeper structures that shape women’s migration experiences.

Research consistently shows that nearly all Kenyan women domestic workers migrating to the Gulf report recruitment-related abuses, while more than half report experiencing physical or sexual violence at destination, as well as wage theft, or restrictions on freedom of movement.

When violations occur, seeking justice is extremely difficult. Language barriers, fear of retaliation, immigration risks, and gender-insensitive legal systems often prevent women from reporting abuse. Protection frameworks tend to frame migrant women primarily as victims who need rescue. What they fail to recognize is something powerful: women migrants are also economic actors, decision-makers, and leaders.

A Gender Transformative Approach: Changing the System

This is where a Gender Transformative Approach comes in.

Rather than simply responding to harm, a gender transformative approach aims to change the conditions that produce inequality in the first place. It challenges harmful gender norms, shifts power relations, and reforms institutions so that migration systems become fairer and safer for women. In migration governance, this means recognizing migrant women not just as workers, but as rights-holders and agents of change.

A gender transformative approach focuses on several key principles:

• Challenging discriminatory gender norms that undervalue women’s work

• Strengthening women’s collective voice and leadership

• Engaging institutions, families, and communities in changing harmful norms

• Reforming policies and labour systems that perpetuate inequality

Instead of asking how to protect women within unfair systems, the question becomes:

How do we transform the system itself to transform the women’s migration journey?

A gender transformative approach must work across the entire migration cycle, from departure to return. Before departure, women need more than awareness sessions. They need access to transparent recruitment systems, fair contracts, and the ability to make informed, autonomous decisions about migration. Crucially, they must also have opportunities to develop and certify diverse professional skills, so that migration pathways do not automatically funnel them into domestic work alone. Expanding training, skills recognition, and job placement options can help ensure that women are able to access a wider range of sectors. Recruitment agencies must be effectively regulated, and families and communities should be engaged in conversations that challenge harmful gender expectations.

During recruitment and placement, women should have access to a wide range of employment opportunities across sectors. For those who engage in domestic work, it must be recognized for what it truly is: skilled labour that deserves labour rights, fair wages, and strong legal protections. Strengthening oversight of recruitment agencies and enforcing accountability mechanisms are critical steps to ensure that women enter migration pathways that are fair, transparent, and respectful of their rights.

At destination, migrant workers must have access to safe reporting channels, effective grievance mechanisms, and legal systems that treat them with dignity. Supporting women’s organizing and leadership in migrant communities can also strengthen their collective power.

Upon return, many women face stigma or struggle to translate their international experience into economic opportunities. Gender transformative reintegration programs prioritize skills recognition, financial inclusion, and social reintegration, ensuring that men are engaged in this transformation and that migration becomes a pathway to empowerment rather than marginalization.

A Moment of Opportunity

Labour migration from Kenya continues to expand. In 2025, the government announced that 430,000 Kenyans had secured employment abroad within two years through the Kazi Majuu program, while more than 100,000 international job placements were facilitated in 2024 alone. These numbers reveal something critical: migration will remain a central feature of Kenya’s economic landscape. The real question is not whether migration will continue. The question is what kind of migration system Kenya will build.

Will women remain concentrated in undervalued, unprotected sectors? Or will migration become a pathway toward dignity, equality, and economic transformation?

Women Are Already Leading

The feminization of migration tells a powerful story. Women are leaving home not out of weakness, but out of determination, to support their families, to build futures, and to claim economic independence. They are not passive participants in global labour markets. They are reshaping them. But leadership alone cannot overcome systems that remain unequal. The feminization of migration from Kenya presents both real opportunities and serious risks. Without transformative interventions, women will continue to be concentrated in insecure and undervalued work, navigating labour markets that fail to recognize the full value of their contribution.

This is why a Gender Transformative Approach is so essential. By challenging discriminatory norms, strengthening women’s agency, and reforming institutions, it offers a pathway toward migration systems that uphold dignity, agency, and gender justice. Systems that finally recognize what has long been true: Kenyan women are not simply part of migration’s story.

Because that story must be told through a simple truth:

She’s not following. She is leading the way.