Dr. Oyieke's Presentation

I went to the presentation about Women in Development and Environment by Dr. Oiyeke on Thursday night. I like how Dr. Oiyeke stated her presentation by showing where Kenya is located in Africa, and also talking about the wildlife of Keya, which included elephants, frogs and cheetahs. She then went on to show us a picture of the Tana River and how it is very brown. She then compares it to what it was like when she was growing up and how it was much cleaner and had a higher water level. This sets the scene of how the environment of Kenya has got worse due to changing into a capitalist country. Now that Kenya is becoming more of a capitalist country there are becoming problems in the environment and the main problem is deforestation. This is why many women are joining forces with many environmental movements such as the Green Belt Movement to help start planting more trees. One subject that Dr. Oiyeke focuses on is the roles of woman and men. She starts by saying men are more worried about making money while women are more focused on creating a better environment, education, and overall life for their children. I see this as a lot like the United States during the early 1900’s, where men worked and women stayed at home. At about this same point the United States was becoming more industrialized. So I wonder, is Kenya on the same track in which the United States was roughly 100 years ago?