Gendered States: Women’s Civil Society Activism in Nigerian Politics

Abstract

This chapter will examine how the relationship between the Nigerian state and women’s associations has affected the empowerment of women at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The focus is on the consequences of the nature of the state in shaping gender relations in post-independent Nigeria, and on the impact of gender on Nigerian politics. The Nigerian state neither conforms with the Weberian, nor the Marxist, nor even the neoliberal economic minimalist model. Therefore, it makes sense to foreground its actual nature, rather than what it ought to be in an analysis that purports to be about gendered states. Over the course of its brief lifespan, the Nigerian state has used political terror and violence as part of the tools to impose order, and it is appropriate to consider the effects of these phenomena on women’s civil society activism in the country’s politics, particularly as a section of civil society that seeks empowerment and relevance in the political system.