RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN A CHALLENGING NIGERIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

Women as with all humans have a number of rights, including the right to learn, to be free from abuse and prejudice, to own property, to enjoy well-being in all of its ramifications, and to earn an equivalent income. Evidence depict women as being at the base of the pyramid in all human development indices, ranging from political participation to socio-cultural and financial independence to inheritance rights to land and property appropriation, to educational enrollment among many other measures. However, across the sphere and in the Nigerian context, a number of women still experience unfairness, given their femininity. Gender disparity emphasizes how women experience a range of rights issues and prejudices within various on-hand laws, which encourage some grave contests in view of denial and marginalization. This could be due to patriarchy; as an intensely entrenched practice in some cultures in nearly all developing societies, has upheld the feminization of poverty, exclusion, segregation, financial deprivation, inequality, and sociocultural repression, which challenge the rights of women. As a largely patriarchal society, the rights of women in Nigeria have been tapered; as issues of gender disparity and women, empowerment is often gazed at with suspicion by men and kept women’s aspirations under ruthless control. All of these rights issues pose legitimate concerns to the helping professions, given the longstanding insistence on the liberation and empowerment of marginal and silenced groups such as women, to promote their human rights and achieve their aspirations. Therefore, challenging women’s rights issues is a professional imperative for which government, NGOs, international bodies, all lawmakers, activists, helping professionals… researchers and policymakers should be actively involved regardless of practice orientation.