The position and empowerment of women in rural Nigeria : the gender implication

Abstract

Nigeria's participation on issues that related to the position and empowerment of women has been a recurring phenomenon for the past two decades as gleaned from her involvement in national and international conferences on women development since the era of the 1995 Beijing conference. This fact clearly underscores the seriousness of the dilemma women suffer in terms of the promotion of their rights to equal participation and representation in decision making at all levels particularly in the rural society. The paper argued that the context for understanding the position and empowerment of women in rural Nigeria has its primary base on the continued entrenchment and perpetuation of traditional cultures as characteristic of the various stereotypes of women which permeate many ethnic groups in Nigeria. The paper further contend that many women have suffered varied traumatic experiences arising from this categorization which have manifested itself in gender inequality and discrimination that has far reaching implications for the empowerment of rural women in Nigeria. The paper concludes by examining the changes that women‟s status had undergone in the light of current socio-economic and political development in Nigeria. Keywords: Women, Gender, Participation, Empowerment, Rural.