Gender and Development in Nigeria

In this edited volume, Nigerian scholars from a variety of disciplines examine the relationship between gender and Nigeria’s pathways of development in the last 100 years of its nationhood. This analysis is set against the background of unequal power dynamics between women and men, and specifically the ways in which social, cultural, political, and economic construction of gender has influenced Nigeria’s course of development through her colonial and post-colonial history.  The influence of the nature of economic governance, policy, and institutional frameworks, the nature of resource availability and (re)distribution between women and men in terms of goods and services, knowledge and skills, policies and budgets, and the outcomes and impacts for women and men are seen in terms of women’s economic empowerment, equal participation and development benefits. This rich collection of empirical works therefore provides not just the rhetoric but the evidence to indict gender power relations in Nigeria, especially at the institutional level. This volume unpacks and explores this recurrent problem with a the goal of identifying new pathways for gender relations.

Gender and Development in Nigeria: One Hundred Years of Nationhood is an insightful, rare compilation of papers of sound scholarship on the cultural, political, and economic factors which have determined the status of women in Nigeria over a century of nationhood. It provides historical perspectives on national and international policies, as well as complexities of governance in Nigeria which have negatively impacted the performance of women in various critical sectors of the economy. The book is recommended reading for academics in cognate disciplines, development planners, policy analysts, gender scholars, and other persons who are interested in the gender dynamics of resource rich Nigeria. It is also an invaluable source of otherwise inaccessible literature and data for an international audience.

Funmi Soetan is professor of economics at Obafemi Awolowo University.Bola Akanji is retired research professor in the Economic Policy Management Division, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) and adjunct professor at University of Connecticut.