Determinants of Women’s Decision-Making Power in Nigeria

• In Event: 546 - Section on Sociology of Population Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Sociology of Population Roundtables (one-hour). Table 01. Gender, Families and Development

Abstract

Promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations for the development of economies like Nigeria. As the year 2015, the benchmark for the achievement of the MDGs, approaches, various governmental and nongovernmental agents are garnering efforts at improving the status of Nigerian women both in the public and in the private sectors. Although the past two decades featured burgeoning research on issues affecting women’s lives in Nigeria, the existing studies of women’s status and decision-making autonomy in the country leave important gap in their representations of the high level of cultural heterogeneity in the country. Using the most recent nationally representative survey data in Nigeria- the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), the present study examines the various determinants of women’s decision-making power across the six geopolitical regions in Nigeria. Factors that significantly and positively relate to women’s household decision-making power in Nigeria include: education, household wealth, women’s employment (both professional and non-professional), age, and age at first union formation. Other factors like urbanization, identification with Islamic and “other” religions, and polygyny negatively impact women’s participation in household decision-making. Further analyses reveal important distinctions in the effects of these predictors on women’s household decision-making power across the six geopolitical regions in Nigeria. The implications of these findings for future research and stakeholders involved in women’s affairs in Nigeria are discussed.

Author

• Esther Omowumi Lamidi, Bowling Green State University