Empowerment as a Potent Tool for Alleviating Poverty and Stress Among Nigerian Rural Women

Economic independence for women is crucial to break the barrier of financial disability, poor health care service etc. Invariably, poor rural women with little political, economic education and social visibility are often by-passed by development planners. This leads to lack of adequate access to food, insufficient nutrition and children being denied the right to enjoy healthy diet that is needed for the growth. In a developing country such as Nigeria, the socio-economic status of rural women is generally low. Thus, they are marginalized in decision-making, opportunity to be in power, education and employment, thereby limiting their effective use of available resources. These amount to lifetime denials, poverty frustration, hunger, threaten peace beyond the immediate environment and stress. It is against this backdrop that the paper examines causes and effects of poverty and stress women and the need to empower them educationally to improve productivity and facilitates access to information and higher wages. Useful suggestions are also proffered