Study Shows Women Cookstove Sellers Outsell Men 3 to 1
A new study in Kenya showed that women were three times better at selling cookstoves than men, and that women who bought their new stoves from women were more likely to report consistent and correct cookstove use as compared to male cookstove sellers.
The study, Understanding Impacts of Women’s Engagement in the Improved Cookstove Value Chain in Kenya, produced by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, ESVAK Kenya, and Envirofit International, examined the relative impacts of engaging women entrepreneurs in the clean cooking value chain and its association with overall improved cookstove sales and adoption.
Additional findings include:
- Women outsold men cookstoves sellers by nearly 3 to 1.
- Those entrepreneurs that were found to be high sellers (selling more than 8 cookstoves), were nearly twice as likely to be female or working in the urban setting.
- If women sold to other women, those consumers were more likely to report consistent and correct cookstove use and were more likely to report the benefits of cookstoves as compared to male cookstove sellers.
- The agency-based empowerment training led to a more than doubling of business capacity for both genders.
- Those entrepreneurs that received the agency-based empowerment training were nearly 3 times more likely to be high sellers of cookstoves.
Download the study: Understanding Impacts of Women’s Engagement in the Improved Cookstove Value Chain in Kenya