Work, women employment and feminization of poverty in Nigeria

Scholars over the years have engaged in gender discourse that has often time demonstrated the continuous perpetuation of the inferiority of female gender to their male counterpart. In most of such writings, accusing fingers are pointed at men as the perpetrators and the women as the victims. Various studies have shown that while poverty affects a significant proportion of the members of the society, women have been worse hit. The continued exposure of the latter either in the traditional or modern society to deepening poverty has therefore aroused a lot of interest in the discussion of the reality of the ‘feminization of poverty'. In examining this, accusing fingers have often been pointed at men as the ones responsible for the higher incidence of poverty among the women. This paper is an attempt at contributing to the on-going debate on feminization of poverty. The paper focuses first on the assessment of the poverty profile in Nigeria. This effort is followed by the explanation of the mechanism of ensuring the perpetuation of poverty among the Nigerian women. Special attention is further directed at the formal world of work and lack of level playing ground for male and female. The paper concludes by putting forward some policy considerations that would facilitate the elimination of all gender colourations in the place of work that perpetuates feminization of poverty. Gender and Behaviour Vol. 4(1) 2006: 642-65