The potentials of women to contribute to the development process, in a patriarchal society like Nigeria, is increasingly being realized [1]. Women are constrained by their reproductive responsibilities, societal norms, beliefs, customs and values by which societies differentiate between them and men [2]. These constraints are shaped by male dominated social structure, high rate of poverty among women, and gender division of labor. Men have ultimate authority over material resources in the household, such as land and cash crops, and over the labor of women and other household members. Women lacked direct access to land and cash crops or men’s labor. They must request these resources from their husbands or from other males in the household to whom they are obligated [3].

 In Nigeria, decision making power at family, community, state and national levels is skewed towards men than women. Also unequal burden of domestic maintenance and childcare responsibilities were allocated to women. UNiLibrary [4] observed that the prevailing patriarchal ideology promotes values of submission, sacrifice, obedience and silent suffering thus undermines the attempts by women to assert themselves or demand for share of resources and rights. Hence women empowerment is being considered as a goal of development intervention. Previous study by Molyneaux [5] observed that women empowerment can be achieved through the alleviation of the burden of domestic labour and childcare, freedom of choice over child bearing, protection from male violence, removal of institutionalized forms of discrimination, the establishment of political equality and improvement of the economic status of women. Alessandrini [6] opined that empowerment requires transformation of structures of subordination through changes in law, property rights, and other institutions that reinforce and perpetuate male domination. Thus the prerequisites for women empowerment should include improvement in the educational, political and economic status of women to enable them to participate actively in development processes.

The Oyo State Women Development Centre, Ibadan is an arm of the Oyo State Ministry of Women Affairs that is saddled with empowerment of women in Oyo state of Nigeria. The Centre is expected to provide an enabling environment for the enhancement of women’s rights to survive, develop and contribute to the socio-economic development processes in this south western State whose land area covers 26,500 Km2 with a population of 8,392,588, out of which 4,112,368 were females [7]. The study being reported here therefore aimed to assess the impact of this Women Development Centre as an agent of development in Oyo State of Nigeria.

Literature Review

Women empowerment is a global issue. The United Nations devoted a decade (1975-85) to issues concerning women and development. The ultimate goal was to empower women to develop their potentials, contribute to and benefit from development on equal basis as men. In 1990s, many agencies used the term women empowerment in association with a wide variety of strategies including those which focused on enlarging the choices and productivity of women [8]. Many conferences were held with the intention to advance the status of women and eliminate gender- based discrimination. Some of these conferences include Mexico Conference of 1975, Copenhagen Conference of 1980, Nairobi World Conference of 1985, and the 1995 Beijing World Conference. The last was followed by a series of five-year reviews. These include the Gender Equality, Development, and Peace for the Twenty-First Century held in New York in 2000, a 10-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action which was conducted as part of the 49th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2005,  the 15-year review of the Beijing Platform for Action that took place during the Commission’s 54th session in 2010, the 20-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action took place during the Commission’s 59th session in 2015  and the 25-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action during the Commission’s 64th session in March 2020 [9]. There had been other conferences on women across the globe.

In Nigeria, where recent statistics revealed that female population is 101,826,104 that constituted 49.4% Nigeria’s population of 206,283,394 [10], a of strategies had been put in place to empower women, politically, economically and educationally in Nigeria. These strategies according to Okeke [9] include widening women’s access to education, encouraging their full participation in cash economy, getting women to participate in politics and reviewing laws on status of women. The 1999 constitution made provision for promotion and protection of women’s right in Nigeria. The Federal government adopted the National Policy on Women in July, 2000. This policy provided for affirmative action to increase women’s representation in the legislative and executive arms of government to 35 percent. The Federal Government has also set up the National Women Development Centre as an arm of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. The Centre is primarily in-charge of research studies on women’s issues [12]. Similarly most states of the federation have set up their own Women Development Centres with their functions being similar to that of the Federal Government.

The Third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) focused on the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. The United Nations Millennium Projects Task Force on education and gender equality has outlined seven strategic priorities to achieve the Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals. These include: strengthening opportunities for secondary education of girls while meeting commitment to universal primary education; guaranteeing sexual and reproductive health and rights; investing in infrastructure to reduce women’s and girls’ time burdens; guaranteeing women’s and girls’ property and inheritance right; eliminating gender inequalities in employment by decreasing women’s reliance on informal employment, closing gender gaps in earnings and reducing occupational segregation; increasing women’s share of seats in national parliaments and local governmental bodies; and combating violence against girls and women [13]. 

Also, women in Nigeria as well as some non-governmental bodies at community levels have organised several programmes aimed at empowering women to contribute further to the socio-economy of the nation. These initiatives include, formation of women’s organizations that engage in development-oriented activities to tackle social problems such as inequity in political, economic and education sectors, male dominance, maternal and child health, child marriage, and other related problems. Other approaches to these initiatives include economic empowerment which focuses on improving women’s control over material resource. Thus women have been organised for savings and their access to credits and income generation improved. Women were trained to acquire skills other related activities. 

Similarly, women’s economic empowerment includes women’s ability to participate equally in existing markets; their access to and control over productive resources, access to decent work, control over their own time, lives and bodies; and increased voice, agency and meaningful participation in economic decision-making at all levels from the household to international institutions. Hence the empowerment initiatives involve raising of women’s consciousness and accumulation of knowledge and ideas. This is achieved through education and other literacy related activities. The Oyo State Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria, is expected to improve women access to the above stated empowerment programmes. Thus, this study is aimed at assessing the impact of this centre on the involvement of women in the developmental processes of the state. The following questions guided the study:

• In which empowerment areas can Oyo State women benefit from among the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

• In which empowerment areas have Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria, enhanced Oyo State’s women participation in economic, political and educational development

• What are the factors hindering the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria, from empowering Oyo State’s women

Also, three hypotheses were formulated for the study as follow:

• There is no significant relationship between Oyo State’s women empowerment and the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

• There is no significant relationship between the enhancement of Oyo State women participation in economic, political and educational development processes and Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

• There is no significant relationship between Oyo State’s women empowerment and the factors hindering the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

The design of this study was quantitative descriptive survey. The population for the study comprised of all women in Oyo State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select the samples used for this study. This approach is useful when stages of selection are involved [14-15]. Random sampling technique was used to select five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state. In each of this LGA, 10 women were selected and used for the study. Thus, a total of 50 women were selected as respondents for this study.

A self-designed questionnaire was used as the instrument for this study. The instrument was tagged “Questionnaire on Impact of Women Development Centre on Women Empowerment (QIWDCWE)”. It is consists of two sections A and B. Section A consisted of the personal data of the respondents. Section B contained the items relating to impact of Women Development Centre on women empowerment. 4-point Likert scale was used in Sections B of QIWDCWE as follow:

• SA: Strongly Agree: 4 Points   

• A: Agree: 3 Points 

• D: Disagree: 2 Points

• SD: Strongly Disagree: 1 Point

The scores obtained above were weighted to give their means and the means interpreted as follows:

• 0.09 = U= Undecided

• 1.49= SD = Strongly disagree

• 1.50 – 2.49 = D = Disagree

• 2.50 – 3.49 = A = Agree

• 3.50 – 4.00 = SA = Strongly Agree

The face and content validity of the instrument was established by means of experts’ review, and the test re-test method was adopted to achieve the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.88. The data collected was analyzed descriptively, using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and Pearson Product Moment Correlation, was used to test the hypotheses  at 0.05 level of significance.

Table 1 shows the socio-economic classifications of respondents in the study area. The respondents were mostly married (76%) and mostly made up of women of working age. Most of the respondents were literates, adherents of the two major religions in the study area and were slightly more in the non agricultural based occupations (Table 1).  Most of the women respondents were conscious of the existence of the organisation known as the Women Development Centre (WDC). Field observation revealed that the more the distance the respondents reside from the WDC, the lesser the consciousness of the women, especially the illiterate ones, on WDC and its activities. Even within Ibadan metropolis, the literate women were more conscious of WDC and its activities than the illiterates.

Table 1: Socio-Economic Classification of Women Respondents in Oyo State, Nigeria

WDC was seen and described by respondents as an institution that offers hope for the hopeless women. These hopeless women were categorized as follow: housewives who desire working or trading but lacked empowerment from their husbands and / or relations, women who dropped out of school due to early and unplanned pregnancy, women who dropped out of school due poverty, women who dropped out of school due to lost of parents and/or guardian, widows, especially at early stage of their marriage, women who lost their (white collar) jobs and women who out of their own volition desired to acquired entrepreneurial skills or training.

The role of WDC in the empowerment of women cannot be overemphasized. Annon [16] opined that WDC is charged with the responsibility of stimulating consciousness towards the attainment of higher levels of development and activity for Nigerian Women. It serves as a data bank on women and development in Nigeria. The Centre facilitates the formulation of policies as well as provides training in skill development and income generating activities. It also provides forum for guidance and counselling and the mobilization of women in both urban and rural areas. Wikipedia [17] observed that the empowerment of women is a necessity for development to take place since it enhances both the quality and the quantity of human resources available for development. Women empowerment enables women to acquire the ability to obtain an income that enables participation in economic decision-making [18]; creates power in them over their own lives, society, and in their communities; access the opportunities available to them without limitations and restrictions such as in education, profession and lifestyle; allows them to acquire the ability to choose between known alternatives [19].

Women are caretakers, educators, entrepreneur, conscience and farmers. Research has shown that education can improve agricultural productivity, enhance the status of girls and women, reduce population growth rates, enhance environmental protection, and widely raise the standard of living [20]. Women were victims of illiteracy and limited access to education and thus were relatively marginalized [21]. Thus their participation in the empowerment programmes, such as those provided by the WDC, will boost their status through literacy, education, training and raising awareness.

Analyses of Research Questions

Question 1: In which empowerment areas can Oyo State women benefit from among the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria?

Results from this study (Table 2) revealed that the respondents strongly perceived WDC as institution that possessed diverse empowerment areas. It was strongly agreed by these respondents that WDC have the capacity to train women and make them suitable for job creation (Mean Value 3.76), provides education that impact the women (Mean Value 3.76), help women acquired vocational skills (Mean Value 3.82) thus make them employable, provides women with adult education that impact women and liberate them from poverty. Also respondents agreed that WDC builds in women the capacity to face challenges (Mean Value 3.48), develop self-confidence in women and enable them to discover their talents and acquire vocation (Mean Value 2.72).

Table 2: The Perception of Women of Oyo State on Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

* SA: Strongly Agree, A: Agree               

The creation of jobs for women is a strategy to economic development. UN [22] opined that the creation of productive employment opportunities is essential for achieving poverty reduction. The role of WDC in skill acquisition is equally impressive. Skills and knowledge have been described as the driving forces of economic growth and social development of any country [23]. Similarly, the benefits of adult education provided are unquantifiable. Kofi [24] opined that without education, women are perpetually cut- off from socio-economic and political activities, which is the development, of their respective communities.

They would be denied real freedom, lose their dignity and become vulnerable to all forms of mental and physical abuses. Thus, the power and capacity of basic education free women from socio-economic and political enslavement. Also WDC was identified as having the potentials to enhance women capacity to face challenges. Fapohunda [25] observed that women lack the training and the means to bloom and this is needed for advancing the position of women, strengthening their capacities and skills and expanding the opportunities for women to more fully develop their roles. WDC’s ability to develop self-confidence in women will go a long way in changing society’s perspectives on women. Madeira [26] opined that evidence shows that building self-confidence is important for women as it affects how they interact with themselves, how they present themselves to people, how they perceive themselves and their capabilities. Thus, Doepke and Tertilt [27] concluded that women with the attributes above are less discriminated against in areas such as education and labour markets.

Question 2: In which empowerment areas have Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria, enhance Oyo State’s women participation in economic, political and educational development?

Table 3 shows that the respondents strongly agreed that women who participated in WDC programmes demonstrated improved   performance on their jobs (Mean Value 3.54), their interests in politics were enhanced (Mean Value 3.70) and demonstrated massive improvement in their socio-economic consciousness (Mean Value 3.30), and on issues concerning their health and their family (Mean Value 2.96). Also, respondents agreed that participants of WDC programmes demonstrated enhanced entrepreneurial skills (Mean Value 3.46), have access to diverse information (Mean Value 3.16) as their mastery in the deployment of technology were improved and utilized in their various endeavors. 

Table 3: Contributions of WDC, Ibadan, Nigeria to the Empowerment of Women in Oyo State, Nigeria

* SA: Strongly Agree, A: Agree                

WDC make women work more productively, with creativity and innovation. Hughes [28] had earlier asserted that gender diversity in workplace leadership has been shown to increase organizational effectiveness. The development of skills in the women, according to Vyas is not just simply preparing them for jobs; but also to boost their performance by improving the quality of work in which they are involved. Skills development is a key to success which improves productivity, employability and earning opportunities. It is the bridge between job and workforce. WDC, as a training institute, impart various types of skills which include, communication skills, business etiquettes, language development, personality development, leadership skills, management skills, entrepreneurship skills, basic accounting skills and basic computer skills. WDC’s training also improves women consciousness of the health, environment and leadership. The previous exclusion of women in politics has been identified in recent times as one of the major setbacks for economic development. Thus the WDC contributed immensely in enhancing self-esteem and self-confidence of women, increasing women awareness in using their latent talent optimally for overall development, develop their skill of decision making capabilities, creating sound and proper environment for women’s pride, prestige, health, physical and mental development.

The WDC also imbibed in women efforts in organizing themselves to fight against problems and difficulties related to them, creates awareness among women for becoming truly ambitious and improve their standard of living, creates an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development and thus enabled them to realise their full potential and participate in decision making, eliminates discrimination and all forms of violence against them and empower them for the sake of total human development. 

WDC provided women with qualitative and quantitative education. Undiyaundeye [29] opined that education is indispensible to women. Education not only enabled women to gain more knowledge about the world but helps them to get status, positive self-esteem and self-confidence, necessary courage and inner strength to face challenges in life. It also facilitates women to procure a job and supplement the income of family and achieve social status.

Question 3: What are the factors hindering the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria, from empowering Oyo State’s women?

Results from this study (Table 4) revealed that respondents strongly agreed that the empowerment activities of WDC, Ibadan, Nigeria, are still being hindered by a number of factors. A gross lack of awareness of the activities of this WDC still abounds (Mean Value 3.92). Field study revealed that most respondents in the rural areas were ignorant of the existence of this centre and its activities. The centre was not adequately funded (Mean Value 3.88) to meet the challenges hindering her activities. Staff of the Centre was inadequate (Mean Value 3.72) and were not tenured. Members of staff were civil servants that were posted to serve in the Centre. 

Table 4: Factors Hindering the Empowerment Activities of WDC, Ibadan, Nigeria

Respondents agreed that the WDC was cited far from other parts of the state (Mean Value 3.16). The centre is non-residential hence intending participants who could not afford the cost of accommodation in the city are naturally discouraged. Also, limited number of trainings was conducted by WDC per year (Mean Value 2.82) with limited infrastructures (Mean Value 3.77) available for such trainings.

Test of Hypothesis

• There is no significant relationship between Oyo State’s women empowerment and the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

The scores relating to women empowerment and the activities of Women Development Centre were computed and subjected to statistical analysis involving Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The result obtained is presented in Table 5.

Table 5: Pearson Correlation of Women Empowerment and the Activities of WDC

*p<0.05

The table above shows that rcal(0.419) is greater than rtable(0.288) at 0.05 level of significance. Thus the null hypothesis is rejected. This implies that there is significant relationship between Oyo State’s women empowerment and the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria. This finding tend to lend credence to the previous assertion of Bayeh [30].

• There is no significant relationship between the enhancement of Oyo State women participation in economic, political and educational development processes and Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

The scores relating to the enhancement of Oyo State women participation in economic, political and educational development processes and Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria were computed and subjected to statistical analysis involving Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The result is presented in Table 6.

The table shows that rcal(0.699) is greater than rtable(0.288) at 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis is rejected. This implies that there is significant relationship between the enhancement of Oyo State women participation in economic, political and educational development processes and Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria. This confirmed the earlier assertion of Asaju and Adagba [31] that women constitute an indispensable force in the quest for national development of any nation.

• There is no significant relationship between Oyo State’s women empowerment and the factors hindering the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria 

   

   

  Table 6: Pearson Correlation of the Enhancement of Oyo State Women Participation in Economic, Political and Educational Development Processes and Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria

*p<0.05

Scores relating to Oyo State’s women empowerment and the factors hindering the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria were computed and subjected to statistical analysis involving Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The result is presented in Table 7.

Table 7 shows that rcal (0.583) is greater than rtable(0.288) at 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis is rejected. This implies that there is significant relationship between the Oyo State’s women empowerment and the factors hindering the activities of Women Development Centre, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Table 7: Pearson Correlation of Women Development Centre and the Factors Which May Militate Against Full Empowerment of Women

*p<0.05

The WDC is actively involved in the empowerment of women in Oyo State, Nigeria. It is imperative that all hands must be on desk to enhance the activities of the WDC. Improve funding is recommended for the Centre and the centre should be made to run regular programmes, like an institution of learning. Instructors in the Centre must be career staff with tenure. The Centre should have campuses in each senatorial district of the state. Public awareness on the activities of the Centre should be promoted. Soft loans should be given to graduates of the centre to enable them establish and be self-employed and/or create jobs for others.

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