| dc.description.abstract | According to National Bureau of Statistics (2016), since the inception of democracy in 1999 women have never occupied the presidency or vice presidency positions in the history of Nigeria. Women in Nigeria hold less than 8% of major decision making positions in government and as a result the National Assembly has an inexcusably low representation of women. Therefore the first objective of this study examined the representation of women in the 8th and 9th National assembly and while many studies focused on women parliamentary representations in Nigeria, this study was not limited to parliamentary representation alone, it also examined the distribution and representation of women in committee leadership of the 8th and 9th National Assembly and examined the performance of committees chaired by women in comparison to their male counterparts in the eighth and ninth National Assembly respectively. Consequently, this study focused on women legislative representation in Nigeria since the commencement of the Eighth and Ninth Assembly respectively (2015-2019 and 2019 till date) and investigated the levels of women Legislative committee representation in the National Assembly and factors that explains this.
This study used a descriptive survey research design and adopted both primary and secondary sources of data collection, data analysis was done using descriptive statistical analysis while the questionnaires collected were processed using the Statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) and STATA. The study was carried out through key informant interview (KII) and administration of questionnaires to Legislators, selected staff of the National Assembly, and stakeholders such as civil society organizations within the National Assembly e.g PLAC, CISLAC as well as visitors of the National Assembly who understand the variables of this study. One hundred and eighty six (186) population size and sample size using census sampling, were as (186) questionnaires were administered in the case study area out of which 111 representing 60% response rate was received. A combination of purposive and random sampling technique was adopted for the study in view of the adequate knowledge of the population and sample size.
Objective one (Representation of women in the 8th and 9thNational Assembly) Results from the study showed that women make up lower than 30% of the overall assemblies population and below the National Gender Policy in Nigeria.
Findings from objective two (distribution and representation of women in committee leadership at the 8th and 9th National Assembly) also revealed that not all women elected into the legislature had committee leadership positions despite their few numbers, qualifications and experience.
Objective three (performance of committees chaired by women in the 8th and 9th National Assembly) the study noted that men had more waves in their performance in committee leadership than their female counterparts. This findings were achieved from comparing committees chaired by women in the eight assembly to the same committees that are now being chaired by men in the ninth National Assembly. Based on the findings of the study, the performance of men in committee leadership is attributed to the wide range of representation by men in the legislature leaving very little space for women to air their interests and make the necessary positive impacts to equate their male counterparts.
In view of these findings, some recommendations offered in the study include implementation of deliberate policies and legislations that target women quotas and affirmative action, elimination of structural barriers to women's participation, reducing the cost of political participation, reforming the electoral process, and sustained and systematic gender education. | en_US |
