The Impacts of Patriarchy on Women Police Officers in Nigeria: The Need to Abolish Gender Discrimination

Abstract

Nigeria is a patriarchal society where women are located in the other room. The dominated power structure that upholds and entrenches male authority is sustained by cultural institutions which, humiliates and consigns women not only as sexual objects, but also to the position of obscurity. Sequel to this, gender discrimination has graduated from the home as if it were human and migrated into workplaces lowering the efficiency of women police officers as never before. Following this, the main thrust of this study is to examine the impacts of patriarchy on women police officers with a view to bringing to end gender discrimination in the Nigeria police. Two hypotheses were formulated in order to achieve the objectives of this study, and in addition, literatures related to the variables were reviewed. A survey research was adopted to collect primary data from 200 respondents purposively selected with the aid of a questionnaire. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to test each hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance with degree of freedom and critical values relative to the statistical technique employed. Among the findings, the study observes that women police officers have remained grossly under-represented and as a result, the Nigerian society has not fared any better for supporting male supremacy to the extent that the society has lower expectations for women police officers, leading to fewer opportunities for promotion. Furthermore, the study also reveals that despite the adoption of the International Bill of Rights for Women and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) by the United Nations, to which over 160 countries, including Nigeria were signatories, Nigeria is yet to implement the provision of the instruments. In addition, the study also notes that the subordinate condition of women is daily being oiled and enforced by the hidden viciousness of men unceasingly thereby making women police officers to continue to experience exclusion, and discrimination in offices. Above all, the study shows that the Nigerian constitution guarantees every citizen the right to dignity of the human person, and forbids the subjection of any person to any form of discriminatory practices based on gender. In conclusion, the study upholds that there is no basis for the continued discrimination and marginalization of women police officers, and by implication, the police institution must as matter of importance purge every trait of gender discrimination against women police officers. Based on this, the study suggests that since the Nigerian traditional world is gradually craving for modernization in which potential talents, competencies, skills, abilities and education amongst other speaks for the individual rather than the gender, there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift to abolish the impacts of patriarchy on women police officers in Nigeria and ensure gender equality. Finally, since the advocacy against women police discrimination agrees that all human beings are entitled to some basic rights marked the birth of the international and universal recognition of human rights, therefore the discrimination and under representation of policewomen should stopped forthwith.