Women empowerment and sustainable development

Women empowerment is a global challenge that confronts all religions in all contexts. There has been an increase of discrimination against women in Kenya that has continued to erode the ecclesiastical authority especially in the Pentecostal churches. Open criticism of the women by the society, some churches, and traditions were the main inspirations behind this research. In this regard, I was motivated to explore how discrimination against women is impacting their lives and what role the church can play in women empowerment as part of addressing the deep-seated discrimination problem. Research findings have indicated that various factors, like traditions, cultural beliefs, and erroneous religious beliefs, are responsible for the rising discrimination against women in the country. These has had various effects to the lives of Christians especially in Pentecostal churches, thus dichotomizing clearly between sacred and secular lives of women remains cumbersome. Howbeit, the challenge being enormous the church seams not to have elaborate systems and measures of addressing the phenomenon though there are some endeavors.