family finances, the gender dimension pops out and could possibly refer to the influence women have in domestic matters as opposed to having more control in community matters, where men have more dominance. Most women are engaged in the informal sector such as selling tomatoes and vegetables, growing vegetables for sale, selling second hand clothes, etc to help support their families. The responsibility of making sure that the family is taken care of no longer rests on men and that explains why women have a marginal edge over male respondents about influencing spending patterns and also family finances. With communities living with conflicts and political conflict being the most visible, it is interesting to note that the competencies to resolve these conflicts lie within the communities themselves as both men and women expressed confidence to resolve differences. Attitudes about gender equality Attitudes about gender equality are important in as far as they view the role of women in participation. These societal norms are powerful in that they prescribe what is the acceptable behaviour of women in society is and the kinds of jobs that are acceptable14. Table 6: Attitudes about Gender equality, Mean scores.15 Male Female Everyone has right to be listened to in group The responses from the questionnaire indicate that both male and female respondents highly agree that everyone has a right to be listened to (4 & 3.8 respectively) and that men and women have an equal voice in the home (3.7 & 3.8 respectively). Interestingly also is that both male and female respondents do not agree that the views of one gender are more important than that of the other (2.7). 4 3.8 4.2 3.3 3 3.6 Men's opinion more valid 3.3 2.7 Women's views more valid 2.7 3.1 Accepting others regardless of gender 3.8 3.4 Man & woman equal voice in home 3.7 3.8 Man & woman share household chores 2.6 3.4 I have own source of income 3 2.6 Able to travel safely in pub. Transport 4 3.9 Same pay for same work 4 4.2 3.4 3.2 3 2.9 Happy to speak in mixed sex group Prefer to speak in same sex grp In control of earned income Can save income I earn These strong views are however not consistent with what generally obtains on the ground where spaces for participation for women and youth are still limited. They are a mere expression of what should and not necessarily what is, though there are changes. Attitudes about gender equality are not very misplaced but the average is low on men concerning splitting of household chores. Most women concur with this notion whilst the 14 15 Ibid - Voice and Agency and Girls for Shared Prosperity There were no differences between males and females (See Table 2). 11