Perspectives of respondents in Anyigba town on the impediments to the underrepresentation of Kogi State women in elective positions following Nigeria’s 2023 democratic elections

Abstract

Studies on women’s political marginalisation in Nigeria dominate the academic literature. However, limited research has interrogated the impediments to the underrepresentation of Kogi State women in elective positions following Nigeria’s 2023 elections. This study examined the role of socioeconomic factors, the nature of politics and perceived patriarchal considerations in the poor representation of Kogi State women in government. This study adopted the liberal feminist theory, used a descriptive survey, and the sample consisted of 361 respondents in Anyigba with deep and diverse knowledge and experience of gender politics in Kogi State. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, and analyses involved descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and t-test. Study results from the 326 completed questionnaires showed that the majority of the respondents implicated socioeconomic issues (19.052), the nature of politics (17.221) and societal patriarchal attitudes (19.051) in the underrepresentation of Kogi State women in government after the elections. The empirical evidence in this study highlighted the obstacles to women’s political representation. This study concluded that improving women’s employment and educational opportunities and strong political commitment from the leadership towards implementing political quotas for women and internal democracy is crucial to increasing the representation of Kogi State women in government