Gender Imbalance, Reduced Productivity and Low Political Empowerment of Women in Nigeria’s Democratic Space (1999-2023)

Abstract

The clamour for gender parity and/or equality is a global issue that has been and is still being widely discussed and this has prompted most governments of the world to address the apparent challenges posed by gender disparity and discrimination across the globe. Thus, this paper intends to address the plethora of problems and issues being confronted by womenfolk in Nigeria so as to provide the strategies for ensuring gender equity and to bring to an end the societal bias against women as a prerequisite for societal upliftment which will eventually lead to rapid increase in women’s contribution to socio-economic and political development of the nation at large. Using content-analysis method, data were sourced from the existing relevant literature and the research paper adopts Gender Equality Theory. The study reveals that the goal of achieving equality of rights for both men and women has been a difficult task to achieve in Nigeria due to; adverse cultural and religious practices, colonial experience, lack of education, oppressive political environment and poor socio-economic status of Nigerian women. The study therefore recommends among other things, the breaking down of the adverse cultural and religious negative practices, integration of women into the mainstream of politics, liberalization of the oppressive political environment, re-orientating and re-awakening the womenfolk through mass media as well as to ensure that issues of special concern to women are wholistically addressed at all levels of government. Keywords: Gender imbalance, Reduced productivity, Low participation, Women and Nigeria. Aims Research Journal Reference Format: Ibitoye, M.O. (2023): Gender Imbalance, Reduced Productivity and Low Political Empowerment of Women in Nigeria’s Democratic Space (1999-2023). Advances in Multidisciplinary and Scientific Research Journal Vol. 9. No. 4. Pp 44-58. www.isteams.net/aimsjournal. dx.doi.org/10.22624/AIMS/V9N3P5