Analytic Approach to the Study of Women's Empowerment through Participation in Household Decision-Making in Nigeria

Womens rights and autonomy especially at the household level has become a subject of serious concern for researchers all over the globe. Though the concept womens autonomy, is not easy to capture in just a word, sentence or even by definition because of it varying usage and meaning. It may be termed as combinations of financial, political, social, cultural, physiological and sexual decision-making power exercised by the women. It is sometimes referred to as a process of gaining control over their life, body and well-being at a given point in time. It is the ability of the women to gain greater autonomy at a point in time. The study found that womens autonomy in decision making at the household level has direct and significant relationship with their socio-economic and demographic characteristics, such as age, education, wealth status, type of residence, number of children and work status. We can concluded on the basis of this study that large proportion of women does not, or have less participation in most of their household decisions either alone or jointly with their spouse and this lead to their low level of empowerment. The finding from the study leads us not to reject our stated hypothesis.