.
There is one statistic from the Behind The Scenes research that I keep thinking about: 76.1% of young women creatives surveyed in Kenya said they had considered leaving the creative sector because of gender barriers. Then you look at another number from the same research: 93.1% said they were committed to a long-term creative career. Read those two numbers together and something becomes very clear. Kenyan women do not seem to be running out of ambition. They are running into systems that can make pursuing that ambition exhausting.
As Kenya’s National Creative Ambassador for the Behind The Scenes Project, Janet Machuka, I had the privilege of being close to this work, the conversations around it and the women whose experiences shaped it. That made these findings deeply personal for me. I am a woman in the creative sector too and I know what it means to build a career around ideas, communication, visibility, relationships and opportunities. I know how much of creative work happens through networks, referrals and the willingness of someone to open a door for you. I also know that when you are a woman, some of the conversations around those doors can become very different. The Kenya findings put numbers to experiences that many women have been talking about for years, and some of those numbers are difficult to look away from.
Kenya’s creative women are showing up but the environment is asking a lot of them
The Kenya study included 422 young women creatives, forming part of a seven-country study of 2,902 young women across Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda. The Kenyan sample was also one of the youngest in the study, with 50.2% of respondents aged 18–24. This means that a significant proportion of the women represented in the research are relatively early in their careers and are entering an industry where they potentially have many years of creative work ahead of them.
We are often told that young people need skills, mentorship and opportunities, and all of these things matter. But what happens when young women acquire the skills and still encounter barriers that have little to do with their talent? That is where the Behind The Scenes research becomes particularly useful because it allows us to look beyond the question of whether women have the ability to participate and instead examine the conditions under which they are trying to build their careers.
78% of Kenyan respondents reported gender-related barriers
Across the seven countries, gender-related barriers were widespread, but Kenya recorded the highest reported level in the study at 78.0%. This number immediately changes the conversation because we are no longer talking about isolated experiences affecting a handful of women. We are looking at a pattern reported by a significant share of the young women surveyed in Kenya.
For me, this is where the word “gender” needs to become more concrete. Gender barriers can show up in:
- Who gets an opportunity,
- Who is taken seriously,
- Who is invited back,
- Who gets to lead,
- Who gets paid what,
- Who feels safe enough to stay and
- Who gets access to networks.
They can also appear in the expectations placed on women to adjust their personal lives around work or navigate conversations that have absolutely nothing to do with their creative ability.
Imagine going for a creative opportunity and the conversation becomes about marriage
One of the findings I find particularly revealing is the way personal questions can enter professional spaces. The research found that 55.3% of respondents across the study reported being asked about their marital status during a job or bid interview, while in Kenya that figure was 76.5%. Questions about plans to have children and the number of children a woman has also appeared in the findings.
This matters because creative careers are already often project-based, freelance and network-driven. When personal circumstances become part of how a woman’s professional potential is assessed, the playing field becomes much more complicated.
A woman can walk into a room with a portfolio, experience, ideas and a proven ability to deliver, yet suddenly the assessment can shift from “Can she do the work?” to questions such as “Is she married?”, “Does she have children?” or “Will she have children?” Those are very different questions, and they tell us something about the assumptions women are sometimes expected to navigate simply to access work.
Then there is the digital harassment
This finding particularly struck me because my own professional world sits heavily in digital communications. The research found that 71.6% of Kenyan respondents had received sexually explicit messages during their careers, while 61.8% reported recent experiences. These figures raise an important question about the relationship between digital visibility and digital safety.
We spend a lot of time talking about how digital platforms have democratised visibility, and they have. A young Kenyan creative can build an audience from her phone, showcase her work on Instagram, find clients through WhatsApp, use YouTube to build a body of work, or use TikTok to reach people who may never have encountered her through traditional creative networks. The Behind The Scenes findings show how important these platforms have become, with reported use in Kenya including 89.8% for Instagram and 80.3% for YouTube.
But there is a tension here. The same digital visibility that can create an opportunity can also expose women to harassment. So when we talk about digital empowerment, we also have to talk about digital safety. A woman should be able to become visible without having to accept harassment as the price of being seen.
64.7% reported lost or reduced income
The economic consequences are equally important. In Kenya, 64.7% reported lost or reduced income in relation to discrimination, while 62.8% reported being blocked from major roles. In addition, 71.8% reported low morale and 68.5% reported mental health challenges. Kenya recorded the highest levels across all four outcomes shown in the study.
This is where I think we need to stop treating gender inequality as simply a women’s issue. There is an economic cost. If a woman is repeatedly passed over for opportunities, that affects her income. If she is blocked from major roles, that affects her portfolio and career progression. If she is constantly navigating discrimination, that affects morale, and if the environment becomes too difficult to sustain, the industry eventually loses talent.
76.1% considered leaving
This number deserves its own moment. 76.1% of Kenyan respondents said they had considered leaving the creative sector because of gender barriers. More than three quarters. That is a significant warning sign for an industry that depends on creativity, talent and fresh ideas.
But then comes the statistic that makes the story even more interesting: 93.1% said they were committed to a long-term creative career. The study calls this a retention paradox: women remain strongly committed to creative careers even while many are considering leaving because of gender barriers.
I find this finding particularly important because it challenges the assumption that women simply need more motivation. They already have the motivation. They want the career, they want to create, they want to build, they want to stay and they want to lead. The challenge is that the conditions surrounding that ambition can become difficult enough to make them question whether staying is worth the cost. That distinction is incredibly important.
Kenya’s women creatives are not asking to be rescued
There is another side to the findings that deserves just as much attention. Women are already finding ways to navigate the barriers. The study identified strategies including digital visibility, boundary-setting, over-performing, informal networks, peer support and creating independent opportunities.
I recognise this because I have seen women create their own platforms and build communities when existing networks were difficult to enter. I have seen women create opportunities for one another and use digital platforms to take their work directly to audiences and clients. I have done some of these things myself. This is one of the things I love about Kenya’s creative community: there is ingenuity everywhere.
When one door closes, someone starts building another door. When a traditional gatekeeper says no, a creative can sometimes go directly to the audience. When a network excludes you, women create another network. When the traditional path becomes too narrow, someone creates a new path.
But we have to be careful with how we celebrate resilience because resilience should be a strength. It should not become the infrastructure.
The women are telling us what they need
The research is also very practical about what needs to change. Women called for safer workplaces, fair pay, childcare support, women’s rooms, grievance systems, mentorship and transparent jobs, roles and bids.
These requests tell us something important. Women are not asking for special treatment; they are asking for systems that make participation sustainable. A safe workplace, fair compensation, a way to report problems, transparent opportunities, support for caregiving, mentorship and basic facilities that recognise women’s realities are all systems that allow talent to focus on the work.
And this is where my own experience becomes part of the story
Being the National Creative Ambassador for Kenya meant that I spent time representing a sector I deeply care about, but it also meant listening. I listened to researchers, women creatives and stories that sometimes sounded familiar and others that made me stop and think.
It reminded me that when we say “the creative sector,” we can make it sound like one large, exciting ecosystem where talent naturally rises. It does not always work that way. There are people behind every opportunity, systems behind every opportunity and power dynamics behind every opportunity. There are decisions about who gets invited, who gets funded, who gets recommended, who gets paid, who gets promoted and who gets trusted with the bigger assignment.
That is what the numbers are revealing. And because I am also a woman in this sector, I cannot look at these findings as something happening to an abstract group of people. These are women who are building the same kind of careers many of us are building. They are our colleagues, our collaborators, our friends, our sisters, our students and our future industry leaders.
Kenya’s creative future cannot afford to lose women
The creative economy is one of the spaces where Kenya’s young people can turn talent, culture, ideas and identity into livelihoods. The Behind The Scenes research reminds us that opening that economy to women requires more than encouraging them to participate. We also have to pay attention to the conditions under which they participate.
Because what does it mean when 93.1% want a long-term creative career, but 76.1% have considered leaving because of gender barriers? To me, it means the ambition is already there. The talent is already there. The creativity is already there. The desire to stay is already there. What needs to catch up are the systems.
As I reflect on my time as Kenya’s National Creative Ambassador, that is perhaps the biggest thing I take away from this project. I do not want us to look at these statistics and simply say, “Women face challenges.” I want us to ask a harder question: What would Kenya’s creative economy look like if women did not have to spend so much energy navigating the barriers around their talent?
Imagine what could happen if that energy went into creating, leading, building businesses, making films, music, fashion, design, journalism and digital storytelling. Imagine the next big Kenyan creative idea emerging in an environment where women can focus more of their energy on their creativity and less on navigating barriers.
That is the Kenya I want us to build.
Because 76.1% considering leaving should concern us. But 93.1% wanting to stay should inspire a completely different response. They are telling us they still believe in the creative sector. Our job is to make sure the sector gives them enough reason to believe in it too.
