Gender empowerment is the empowerment of people of any gender.

While conventionally, the aspect

of it is mentioned for empowerment of women, the concept stresses the distinction between biological
sex and gender as a role, also referring to other marginalized genders in a particular political or social
context.

Gender empowerment has become a significant topic of discussion in regard to development and
economics. Entire nations, businesses, communities, and groups can benefit from the implementation of
programs and policies that adopt the notion of women empowerment.[1] Empowerment is one of the
main procedural concerns when addressing human rights and development. The Human Development
and Capabilities Approach, The Millennium Development Goals, and other credible approaches/goals
point to empowerment and participation as a necessary step if a country is to overcome the obstacles
associated with poverty and development.[2]

Gender empowerment can be measured through the Gender Empowerment Measure, or the GEM. The
GEM shows women's participation in a given nation, both politically and economically. Gem is calculated
by tracking "the share of seats in parliament held by women; of female legislators, senior officials and
managers; and of female profession and technical workers; and the gender disparity in earned income,
reflecting economic independence."[1] It then ranks countries given this information. Other measures
that take into account the importance of female participation and equality include: the Gender Parity
Index and the Gender Development Index (GDI)

Gender equality in Nigeria

In March 2022, Nigerian women suffered backlash in their pursuit of gender equity. Five gender bills
presented to the National Assembly were thrown out.

The bills sought to advance women’s rights on a number of fronts. These included: providing special
seats for women at the National Assembly; allocating 35% of political position appointments to women;
creating 111 additional seats in the National Assembly and the state constituent assemblies; and a
commitment to women having at least 10% of ministerial appointments.

The rejection of the bills showed that the assembly wasn’t interested in gender parity in politics. It has
469 members. Only 21 are women.
This is a tragedy for Nigerian women, whose representation in politics falls short of the goal set by the
National Gender Policy in 2006. This policy demands that 35% of women be involved in all governance
processes.

Women make up about 49% of Nigeria’s population. Their representation in government is a far cry
from what’s been achieved in other countries on the continent. For example, in Rwanda women make
up 61.3% of members of parliament. In South Africa, they make up 46.5% of the country’s parliament.

Women played important roles in the struggle for independence. They wrote petitions, staged protests,
mobilised and challenged all forms of oppression and suppression which permeated their economic,
socio-cultural and political spaces. Also, during the years of military rule a significant number of Nigerian
women stood their ground across governance strata, and spoke truth to power.

Since protracted military rule was ended in 1999, previously marginalised populations and segments of
the country have gained the confidence to participate in governance. But the going has been slow for
women.

As my research shows, there is only lip service commitment to gender mainstreaming across electoral
processes in Nigeria. My study with David Enweremadu highlighted the lack of women’s representation
in parliament, as well as among security personnel, party agents, media, observers and voters during
electoral processes.

Warped media portrayal of women also contributes to the exclusion of women. The rejected gender and
equal opportunity bill would have resolved this.

There are three main reasons for the exclusion of women.

Firstly, there’s a lack of voter education. Secondly, women are disproportionately excluded from policy
making domains because more live in poverty than men. Thirdly, there is more moral scrutiny of women
than men.
Lack of voter education

Women play various roles in elections. They act as cheerleaders at political rallies, run grassroots (often
door-to-door) campaigns, organise protests against election misconduct, vie for political office and serve
as political appointees, among others.

Yet most lack voter education. Voter education must take on gendered contexts. It must be conducted
by bodies such as the Independent National Electoral Commission as well as civil society.

The role of poverty

Women constitute a larger proportion of poor people in the country.

This hampers gender equality in political representation because poverty denies women the financial
and human resources required for leadership positions. The Independent National Electoral
Commission’s Gender Policy, which provides specific measures to deal with women’s marginalisation in
politics, should be revisited to ensure it’s implemented to the letter.

Corruption

Another tactic used to keep women out of politics is what I have termed “feminised corruption”. In a
recent paper I showed how the level of corruption was perceived differently when women were
involved compared to men.

The study observed that ethnicity, age, class and educational background are not necessarily
contributory to how corruption is feminised in Nigeria. But being a woman in the political space is. This
seems like a deliberate effort to weaponise corruption against women in politics and leadership.

A number of high ranking Nigerian women have been caught in this web. Among them are Patricia
Etteh, first female speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, who was accused of unauthorised
spending of 628 million naira (about US$5 million); Stella Oduah, former Minister of Aviation, indicted
for alleged fraud of about five billion naira; Winifred Oyo-Ita, former Head of Service of the Federation,
who was accused of 570 million naira fraud charges; Diezani Allison Madueke, former Minister of
Petroleum Resources, who was accused of money laundering; Kemi Adeosun, former Minister of
Finance, who was accused of certificate forgery; and Adenike Grange, former Minister of Health,
indicted for allegedly stealing public funds.
Each of the indictments against these women has its peculiarities. But I argue they are connected by the
fact that none of the cases has been brought to a legal conclusion. This is unusual and suspicious. Some
corruption cases against men have been brought to legal conclusion.

On top of this, several corruption cases involving men have not been given as much attention as the
cases involving women. And, in many cases, men indicted for corruption have escaped opprobrium and
returned triumphantly to politics.

The reverse is true for female politicians who, once indicted for corruption, withdraw in shame and
mostly never return to politics.

Besides, women in politics have to endure close scrutiny of their private lives. This includes shaming
family members and objectifying women’s bodies by politicising personal items such as jewellery, shoes
and bras.

What needs to be done

The three challenges to women’s political representation in Nigeria are not insurmountable.

Voter education must capture the global quest for gender parity and place it in local contexts.

Gender policies must be implemented and monitored.

Feminised poverty calls for interventions to reduce wealth disparities.

The abuse of women indicted for corruption must be nipped in the bud.

Nigeria
Africa

Globally, some progress on women’s rights has been achieved. However, work still needs to be done in
Nigeria to achieve gender equality. 75% of legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender
equality under the SDG indicator, with a focus on violence against women, are in place. 43.4% of women
aged 20–24 years old who were married or in a union before age 18. The adolescent birth rate is 106 per
1,000 women aged 15-19 as of 2017, down from 120 per 1,000 in 2015. As of February 2021, only 3.6%
of seats in parliament were held by women. In 2018, 13.2% of women aged 15-49 years reported that
they had been subject to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the
previous 12 months. Moreover, women of reproductive age (15-49 years) often face barriers with
respect to their sexual and reproductive health and rights: despite progress, in 2018, 35.6% of women
had their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods.

As of december 2020, only 46.7% of indicators needed to monitor the SDGs from a gender perspective
were available, with gaps in key areas, in particular: unpaid care and domestic work, key labour market
indicators, such as the gender pay gap and information and communications technology skills. In
addition, many areas – such as gender and poverty, physical and sexual harassment, women’s access to
assets (including land), and gender and the environment – lack comparable methodologies for reguar
monitoring. Closing these gender data gaps is essential for achieving gender-related SDG commitments
in Nigeria.

Female empowerment in Nigeria is a wealth creation scheme that aims to reduce poverty by
empowering the Nigerian women. Empowerment is the growth of women’s political, social, and
economic strength in the development of a nation.

It is also a means of lessening women’s insecurity and reliance in many aspects of their lives. It is
important to note that the combination of educational, political, health, and legal independence is
critical to women’s empowerment in Nigeria.

As preparations for the 2023 elections commence, Nigerian women are pushing to be more existent in
the political sphere as several women such as Khadijah Okunnu-Lamidi (SDP), Uju Ohanenye (APC), Carol
Nwosu (AAC), Ibinabo Joy Dokubo (APC), Olivia Diana Teriela (PDP) and Angela Johnson (APGA) all took
bold steps to vie for the ticket of their parties for the presidency but still, it is, however still not enough
to say that the Nigerian woman has been empowered.

The need to empower women, particularly poor rural women, is critical to Nigeria’s economic progress.
According to statistics, Nigerian women are yet to achieve a steady level of personal well-being for
profitable economic activities. Inaccessibility to health care, education, and participation in decision-
making has hampered women’s growth.
Girls’ education is a strategic development goal because, in addition to enhancing quality of life, access
to inclusive education provides women and girls with the tools they need to create innovative solutions
to the world’s most pressing challenges.

Educated women are healthier, participate more in the formal labour market, earn higher salaries, and
have access to better health care and education if they choose to have children

REFERENCE

Deneulin, Séverine, with Lila Shahani. 2009. An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability
Approach: Freedom and Agency. Sterling, VA: Earthscan.

U.N. General Assembly, 55th Session. “United Nations Millennium Declaration.” (A/55/L.2). 8
September 2000. (Online) Available: www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.pdf (accessed
January 2, 2008)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_empowerment#:~:text=Gender%20empowerment%20is
%20the%20empowerment,particular%20political%20or%20social%20context.

https://theconversation.com/amp/gender-equality-in-nigeria-three-reasons-why-women-arent-
represented-in-politics-199321