Poverty status of the rural women in Ejigbo local government area of Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the poverty status of rural women in Ejigbo Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. Specifically, it described the socio-economic characteristics and determined the poverty status of the rural women in the study area. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 rural women for the study. Primary data were collected with the aid of a well-structured interview schedule and analyzed with the use of frequency counts, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Foster, Greer and Thsorbecke (FGT) index. The results reveal that the mean age of the respondents was 42.1 years. Majority (73.3%) were married, the mean household size was 5 persons and majority (60.8%) were members of cooperative societ(ies). The mean monthly income of the respondents was ₦52,283, poverty line was ₦34,855.33, poverty incidence was 0.5, poverty gap index was 0.192 and poverty severity was 0.098. The study concluded that half of the respondents was poor and recommended that governmental and nongovernmental organizations should organize poverty alleviation programmed for the women in the study area.