Socio-Cultural Changes, Women Empowerment and Family Welfare among Ubiaja Women of Southern Nigeria

Abstract

The world in the past has experienced a structured and uni-lineal direction of cultural practice and this has been the domination and execution of leadership, policy and practice by the male sexes in the society, though there have been transformation in most of her cultural practices, the women folk have not been left behind in this transformation process or agenda. The first and the third article of United Nations Millennium Development Goal Strategy is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, and also to promote gender equality and empower women, all these are to improve the life and the welfare of the families in the world especially the developing countries and Nigeria is not exempted in the scheme motion of development as this study examines with kin interest the socio-cultural changes, the various empowerment scheme available to women and its nexus to family welfare among women of Ubiaja, Nigeria. The study is an exploratory design and made use of 150 respondents in Oyomo, Ugbenin, Uokha, Eguare communities of Esan South East Local Government Area, Ubiaja, respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire and an in-depth interview, convenient sampling method was used for the study. Based on the findings, it was realized that most of the women in the selected community have been empowered in one form or the other and it benefits revealing. Conclusion and recommendation were deduced from the findings. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n2p427