Mabel Ogbonna, an entrepreneur, whose father died when she was a little child, was denied rights to all of her father’s holdings because she was the only female child. Now she laments that her father’s assets are all fading away.
Being a female offspring, Mabel and all other female children in the Eastern region of Nigeria are frequently told, “Ichoro àlà, gá ná nke di gi,” which roughly translates to, “If you want to control properties, go to your husband’s house.” Similar to Mabel, this is widespread in some regions of Nigeria where women are not considered suitable to inherit property.
Nigeria is ranked 130th out of 146 countries due to its pervasive gender disparity, with a score of 0.637, or 63.7%, according to the global gender gap report. Ranking factors were political empowerment, educational attainment, health and survival, and economic engagement and opportunity.
The World Economic Forum estimates that after an “entire generation” of advancement was lost to Covid-19, closing the gender gap might take 131 years globally. While in Sub- Saharan Africa, it will take 102 years to close the gender gap.
Nigeria’s indices have remained between 62 and 64 per cent over the ten-year period in review.
In the 2023 global gender gap report, Nigeria’s economic opportunity and participation score was 0.715, placing it in 54th place globally. The global ranking for educational attainment was 137th, with a score of 0.826. Health and survival is ranked 99th, with a score of 0.967; and political empowerment is ranked 142nd, with a score of 0.041. Nigeria’s political empowerment score remains the worst of all four indices.
Regarding political empowerment, about 4% of women were elected into public office in Nigeria, and between 2011 and 2019, 6% of women achieved the highest positions.
Regarding economic involvement and opportunity in Nigeria, women hold more than 64% of senior positions despite earning only half as much as men.
Compared to men, women in Nigeria have lower educational attainment levels. The percentage of female students in junior secondary schools is 49.8%, while the percentage of female students in colleges of education is 32.7%, the lowest in all educational levels.
Despite having one of the highest female literacy rates in West Africa, Nigeria still has a higher male literacy rate than females. The literacy rate for men is 71.26%, compared to 52.66% for women.
Sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy was used in the report to quantify health and survival. Nigeria has a perfect sex ratio at birth, which helps to explain why there is 96.7% parity in the subindex for health and survival.
Gender inequality has existed in various forms since antiquity and results from men and women having different social, political, and civic rights. According to the Global Gender Gap Report, none of us will live to witness gender equality. If accurate, this would suggest that the economy will continue to grow slowly.
For the fourteenth year in a row, Iceland ranks as the most gender-equal nation globally. It is also the only nation where the gender gap has been reduced by more than 90%.
Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, Nicaragua, Namibia, Lithuania, and Belgium rounded out the top ten. Although no nation has yet attained complete gender parity, the top nine nations on the list have reduced their disparity by at least 80%.
Sub-Saharan Africa has a parity score of 68.2%, ranking sixth out of the eight regions, ahead of Southern Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Namibia, Rwanda, and South Africa have closed more than 70% of the global gender gap, making the countries with the highest parity score in Sub-Saharan Africa. With scores below 62%, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Chad are the least successful nations.
However, many countries have made strides in providing opportunities for women in other areas, like politics and education, but the progress is uneven across every region and country globally.