There are so many factors that lead women to the kind of occupation they undertake and one of these, which is very visible in the developing countries especially Nigeria is poverty. Although it is impossible to say precisely how much is the disparity between men and women when analyzing the level of poverty along gender lines, but it is an accepted fact that the imbalance is worsening (United Nations, 1996). Throughout history, female poverty rates have surpassed male poverty rates in virtually every society (Casper, Mclanahan, and Garfinkel, 1994).
It is an often stated statistics that women who are in poverty are up to 70 percent of the world’s poor (Honeyman, 2000). Although some statisticians say it is closer to 55 percent or 60 percent, however, all agree that the figures for women’s poverty are worsening (Triest, 1998).
Hence on account of poverty some women, start to look for any type of job both formal and informal without properly considering the consequences of their employment on themselves and family ( Ranchod, 2001). Nigeria is a country rich in oil wealth, crude oil reserves were estimated at 24 billion barrels in 2001(IMF,2005). ln 1990, agriculture comprised 33 percent of gross domestic product, mining and quarry 36 percent, By 2002, mining and quarry comprised 37 percent of the GDP. Estimate indicates that around 52 percent of Nigerians live in poverty and around 70 million people are living on less than one dollar a day(IMF,2005).This revelation shows that 68 percent of households living in poverty were female headed. Nigeria also reports significant inequalities in women’s labor market participation, remuneration, health and human capital, with indicators for women being recorded as substantially lower than those for men ( Hinton, 2003) . Women are likely to be poorer than men and have fewer options for escaping poverty.
The other factor that leads women to informal jobs especially mining is lack of formal education, which has direct link with poverty. Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa indicates that although there have been a reasonable improvement in female participation in education, girls’ and women’s access to education remains limited in several countries across the region. It is evident that, once enrolled, girls are more likely to drop out of school than boys. Interrelated school, socio-economic, socio-cultural (stereotyping), political and institutional factors (like tuition fees) in Africa, that constrain female education are increasingly well documented, much remains to be done to design and implement programmes to increase female education in the region (Brock and Cammish 1991; Herz 1991; king and Hill 1991; Tietyen and Prather 1991; Colclough and Lewin 1993).The near exclusion of women from formal education during the colonial period is reflected in the low levels of female participation in 1960. ln the early 1960s less than 20% of children in sub-Saharan Africa were in school.
Since then the proportion of children in school have more than tripled to approximately 80 million in 1990 (Word Bank, 1994). But this growth however has not been maintained, as adverse economic conditions and population growth led to stagnation in enrollments and a decline in education quality. Comparative data from Latin America, Asia and Middle East indicate that in 1990 both the gross primary and secondary enrollment ratios were significantly lower in the sub-Saharan African region than in other developing regions. And the net primary enrollment ratio for the region has declined from 68-37 percent (World Bank, 1994), a clear indication of the large number of children who remain outside the formal education system. Indeed, about 36 million girls were out of school in the sub-Saharan African region (UNESCO/UNICEF, 1993).
Sending girls to school entails direct and opportunity costs which are prohibitive to families, particularly, poor families and rural families. Although, Anugwom (2009) accepted that there had been bias in educating the female child in the Nigerian society, but that recent events reveals a conquering of this deep-rooted prejudice. Enrollment figures particularly in the last ten years show remarkable bridging of the gap between the genders. Notwithstanding this achievement, women are still victims to a social order that treats them largely as second position role players especially in the rural areas where poverty prevents the majority of women from obtaining the credit, education, training, health services, child care and legal status needed to improve their prospects.
The increasingly prohibitive cost of schooling is the major reason parents give for not educating or for removing children particularly girls, from school. This is not surprising given the prevailing economic crisis in the region. Poverty is widespread and affects schools and families alike; numerous studies indicate the extent to which parents have to cover the shortfalls due to fiscal crisis which have had a devastating impact on house hold incomes and educational systems (Asomaning 1994; Graham- Brown 1992; Njeuma 1993; Palme 1999).
With the rapid rate of growth in urbanization, the demand for domestic labour in urban areas has also increased. Resource poor rural households have responded by sending their daughters into the domestic labour market in exchange for a regular cash income. Information from some empirical studies and equally from the department of community development in Ghana indicates that rural young girls are sent to urban areas to become domestic servants for kin and non kin families. Such displacement often occur in their primary school years. Their parents receive payment for their services, but the girls have little or no opportunity to return to school (Asomaning, 1994). And one outcome of the low level of female participation in education in sub-Sahara Africa is an extremely high level of female illiteracy.
One of the greatest disincentives to female education is the low level of female participation in the formal labour force. The international labour organization
estimates that in 1990 the female labour force in sub-Sahara Africa was 73 million, 38 percent of the total labour force, a decrease from 40 percent of the total labour force in 1970.Women are well represented in the informal sector, where their level of participation has registered an annual growth rate of 6 percent. But overall female employment in the modern sector remains low (World Bank, 2007). Within the modern sector, women have been employed mainly in the civil service, with their employment in parastatals and the private sector remaining low. In the civil service, women tend to be located at the lower end of the hierarchy, working mainly in community, social and personal services. There are few women managers and administrators; for example in 1990, women made up less than 1percent of managers in Ghana, Rwanda and Togo at the upper end. ln Kenya and Uganda, the figures were 3.1 percent and 3.5 percent respectively (ILO/JAPA 1991; Palmer 1991).
But then recent analysis in most of the African countries on girls and women education has improved (UNICEF,2003). UNICEF identified that with the awareness of formal education being the key part of strategies to improve individuals’ well-being and societies economic and social development ,access to education has improved dramatically over the past few decades. And with this there have been a number of encouraging trends in girls’ and women’s education, showing that primary school enrollment is high or universal in most of the developing countries, and gender gaps in secondary school enrollment have already disappeared in several African countries. The observation equally identified that women are also in most of these areas likely to enroll in universities than they were in the past.
Although UNESCO institute for statistics (2008) identified that women still accounted for 64 percent of illiterate group in the rural areas of South and West Asia, the Arab states and Sub-Saharan Africa. UNESCO (2000) identified from its framework for action meeting held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000; education for all; that assessment demonstrates that there has been significant progress in many countries. But that still it is unacceptable in the year 2000 that more than 113 million children have no access to primary education , 880 million adults are illiterate, gender discrimination continues to permeate education systems, and the quality of learning and acquisition of human values and needs of individuals and societies. The education for all ,2000 assessment highlights that the challenge of education for all is greatest in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and in the least developed countries.
Be the first to comment