WOMEN

This study was designed to investigate the assessment of the factors influencing the non-participation of women in community development programmes: A case study of Oredo local government area of Edo state. The sample for the study comprises of 75 women selected from government workers, teachers and traders in Oredo local government through simple random sampling procedure. The research design used for this study is the survey and the questionnaire was used for the collection of data. The analysis of the data lead to the following findings women don’t participate in community development programmes and that the level of their participation is at the lowest ebb, that husband and societal values is a hindrance to women participation, culture and religion also impede women’s participation, also education help to encourage women to participate in community development programmes. It was therefore recommended that community leaders should be those that could be trusted by the entire community, campaign for women participation should be made more effective through the use of local dialects, necessary mechanism should be put in place through which the women’s felt need can be met and more women should be involve in the planning and policy making in all aspect of our national life and development.

Women participation in governance in Nigeria and Edo State in particular, remains a burning issue in nearly every political discourse in Nigeria. For years, it has been observed that women have played comparatively less role as political office holders to their male counterparts.1 In Edo State, Nigeria, the political arena is not different from other parts of the world where political participation is imbalance in favour of men.2 Women‘s participation in the political process has therefore become the focus of many local and international debates in the past two decades.3 Different fora such as the 1995 Beijing Declaration, the 1995 Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women held in Kenya and the United Nations Development Fund for Women, had recognized the plight of women‘s participation in politics especially in the developing countries.4 Against this backdrop, this study seeks to assess the political under- participation of women in politics to Edo state and investigate the reasons for this umbalances.