Variability in the quality of life of literate and non-literate rural women, a Nigerian account

grantor: University of TorontoDiscourses related to world trends in il/literacy are replete with accounts of the ameliorative potential of literacy vis-a-vis the subordinate condition of women in Sub-Saharan Africa. But, despite the extensive coverage of the problem in academic literature, there is a paucity of field-based research showing how il/literacy affects the quality of women's lives in the region. This study was designed to explore the quality of life of literate and non-literate rural women in Nigeria. The study progressed on the assumption that the fundamental cause of women's peripheral condition is rooted in their collective status as the subordinate gender within Nigerian society. Women's limited access to literacy/education is as much a question of economics as one of legitimacy, uneven distribution of power and access to social rewards. Theoretically, the study examined the link between women, literacy and power, emphasizing the structural nature of women's subordination often through hegemony. The question of women's access to literacy touches virtually all spheres of women's private and eocial life within organised society, including issues of power, politics, economics, demographics, health and child welfare as well as women's psychological well-being. To varying extents, this work touches on all of these. Additionally, the study addresses the broader implications for society as a whole when literacy levels among women are low. Guided by the philosophical underpinnings of critical realism, the data were collected through the use of qualitative methods that relied substantially on individual and focus-group interviews as well observations by the researcher within the lived milieu of the women themselves. The findings suggest that while the literate participants have not become the leaders of their respective rural communities, they do enjoy a comparatively enhanced quality of life, have increased life options as well as some social influence. But the evidence also indicates that non-literate rural women are ambivalent about literacy programmes because their abject economic conditions make participation in such programmes an unattractive option. Finally, the results strongly suggest that empowering rural women in Nigeria requires the adoption of praxis-oriented intervention policies that are geared towards critical social reconstruction, linking educational empowerment with economic independence.Ph.D