Participation Of Women In Community Development In Nigeria: A Case Study Of Igbo Eze South Local Government Area, Enugu State

ABSTRACT

This work studied women participation in community development with special

emphasis on Igbo Eze South Local Government Area, Enugu State. The exercise was

carried out due to the observed lag in women participation in community development

all over the country. The work had four key objectives which it sought to realize.

These include: to ascertain the barriers to women participation in agriculture within

the local government, to ascertain the impact of low level of education on women

participation in community development, to determine how to enhance women

participation in the politics of Igbo Eze South Local Government Area and finally to

identify ways of empowering the women for optimal participation in the overall

development of the communities. The researcher made use of both primary and

secondary sources of data to generate data used for the study. These data were

presented in tables and analysed using simple percentage. The researcher found out

the various barriers to women participation in community development to include

cultural practices, low level of women education, poverty among the rural women and

violent that characterize the country’s politics. It is therefore recommended that

cultural practices that deny women free access to land should be abrogated;

Government should provide modern farm implements to the rural women farmers and

also educate them on how to use these implements to enhance productivity; girl child

education should be made free and also compulsory at least at secondary school

levels.