Patriarchy and Women’s Political Leadership Position in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Women worldwide, face discrimination, subordination, exploitation and relegation in several spheres of life. It has been observed that this discrimination against women is more pronounced in the developing African countries of the world. In Nigeria, womanhood is reduced to mere tool in the hands of men and seen as only being relevant in the kitchen. This has brought about tremendous misrepresentation of women right at the level of the family down to the circular society. Nigeria is patriarchal in nature and this is a major feature of a traditional society. Patriarchy is a broad network or system of hierarchical organization that cuts across political, economic, social etc, under which the overwhelming number of upper positions in society are controlled and dominated by men. In the modern world where women go ahead by their merit, patriarchy creates obstacles for women to go forward in the society. It has been adjudged that women constitute about half of the population of Nigerian, yet there is inherently a pronounced level of under representation of women in political leadership positions when compared with their male counterparts. This paper attempts to x-ray the conceptual clarification of patriarchy, origin of patriarchy, theoretical underpin, causes for the discrimination of women in Nigeria and as well proffer practical solutions to this situation. This paper therefore, argues that if Nigeria and the world in general are to benefit from women’s full potential, the constant dilemma and stringent constraint on women must be removed.