GENDER DISCRIMINATION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Discrimination based on gender has been present since the beginnings of human social cohabitation, and today, it has reached alarming dimensions in different countries of the world1.Gender discrimination implies a discriminatory treatment of persons, based on a subjective criterion (gender), in the processes of selection, compensation, promotion, professional training and recognition of professional merits. In Nigeria, gender discrimination is one of the major reasons for the grave inequality that exist between males and females. It is the finding of this paper that many of the factors occasioning discrimination in Nigeria grow out of stereotypes that are carried over from the cultural practices of societies that make up the country today. Most of the traditional societies in Nigeria are patriarchal, and this manifests in the gender roles allocation and translates to the visibility or otherwise of the female folks in societal and national life. This paper is an attempt to x-ray the problem of gender discrimination as the bases for inequality in the Nigerian society. This paper also advocates for the equality of rights for men and women as a basic principle of the United Nations. Doctrinal research methodology was explored in this paper. This paper recommends the domestication of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDOW), as well as the educational and economic empowering as a way of tackling the matter of gender discrimination in Nigeria.