Open AccessA Note on Economic Activity of Women in Nigeria
Author(s) -
Glen Sheehan,
Guy Standing
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v17i2pp.253-261
Subject(s) - subsistence agriculture , urbanization , division of labour , agriculture , developing country , unit (ring theory) , rural area , economic growth , demographic economics , wage , development economics , socioeconomics , survey sampling , economics , sample (material) , geography , political science , labour economics , sociology , population , demography , psychology , market economy , mathematics education , archaeology , law , chemistry , chromatography
The aim of this article is to investigate some of the factorsexplaining the economic activity of women in Nigeria, in particular, toexamine the question of whether urbanisation is likely to lead to a"marginalisation" of Women in Nigeria. Such a question would notnormally be asked in most developing countries because, since recordedfemale labour force participation is low in the rural areas of mostcountries, it could be expected that urbanisation would be associatedwith rising levels of female activity. However, a different situationexists in sub-Saharan Africa with female participation in the ruraleconomy being strikingly high.1 This is associated with a traditionaldivision of labour which allocates prominent roles to women insubsistence agriculture and often in trading activities. This traditionis partly explained by the need for men to travel long distances to huntor, in this century, increasingly to find wage earning activity. Thepresent study is based on a survey carried out by the Human ResourcesResearch Unit of the University of Lagos in 1973 and 1974. It covered asample of 2,700 women aged 20 and over drawn from four areas of Nigeria.It is admitted at the very outset that conceptual deficiencies in thesurvey appear to have led to an understatement of labour forceparticipation in rural areas, making the analysis somewhatquestionable.