Trend and Levels of Women Empowerment in Nigeria

ACHA, CHIGOZIE KELECHI^1,

¹DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS, MICHEAL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE, UMUDIKE, ABIA STATE, NIGERIA

Cite this paper:
ACHA, CHIGOZIE KELECHI. Trend and Levels of Women Empowerment in Nigeria. American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. 2014; 2(6):402-408. doi: 10.12691/ajams-2-6-8

Abstract

Women empowerment has become major factor in economic development and is increasingly at the core of countries’ competitiveness in the global economy. The main objective of this paper is to ascertain the trend and level of women empowerment in Nigeria by 2015. Secondary data from Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), Nigeria Demographic and Education Survey (NDES), and National Population Commission (NPC) were used. Employment, education and literacy rate were adopted as measures of women empowerment. An overview of the relationship between women’s level of education and other background characteristics was carried out. The results showed that men are more likely than women to have some education. Over 40 percent of men are literate compared to 13 percent of women, which is similar to the results obtained from variables like occupation, agriculture, etc. Employment is one source of empowerment for women but unfortunately it is difficult to measure their employment status because the informal sectors are not reported. However, the data on hand indicates, for instance, that women and men currently employed in the North West are 46 and 54 percent respectively. Also, the employment rate of men and women in urban area are of the ratio 42:37 percent while the employment ratio of men to women in the rural area is 63:58. The study also hints that employment, education and literacy rate of women are strong determinants of economic growth and they should not be neglected as the nation works toward attaining vision 2020 goals.

Keywords:
education employment empowerment equality economy

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