Women have generally been looked down upon for centuries with various restrictions inflicted on them reducing their status at the mercy of men.
They have been confined to home and home. But now the perspective of society has changed and a general thought is being developed to work for the emancipation and empowerment of women so that they can also contribute to the advancement and well-being of society.
Women make up nearly 50% of the world’s population. According to Nigeria’s last official census in 2006, women made up almost half of the then 140 million population at 68.3 million. Updated figures from the United Nations for 2010 place Nigeria as the most populous and densely populated nation in Africa, with 155 million in 2010, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the New York Women Defenders Research and Documentation Center (WARDC) reported that 600,000 women die in the world annually and Nigeria represents 10% of this figure; 60,000 Nigerian women die each year due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. In more understandable terms, the number translates to 164 women per day.
According to the Nigerian Minister of Women’s Affairs and Social Development, the latest Nigerian census revealed that women make up 49.9% of the country’s population; the underrepresentation of women (2%) in the nation’s development processes on the financial, business and investment fronts, leaves 40% of the population inadequately positioned to contribute to the country’s economic growth.
As long as documented history has existed, so has the oppression of women. For many people, it seems natural that women are worse off, due to their smaller size or their ability to have children. Men console themselves with the idea that women need care. Not only the capitalist system is to blame, but also in feudal society, women were second only to men.
Early anthropologists began to speak of an earlier time when women, not men, ruled society.
The history of class struggles shows the continuing effects of the “world historical defeat of the female sex” intertwined with and subservient to exploitative class relations.
Women are an indispensable part of the family, since children are an economic necessity, but their role is secondary.
Women, although their economic activity was more focused on the home, played an important role in social life.
Why women are poor/oppressed
Women face many challenges both at home and in the market when they decide to seek employment or start entrepreneurial activities.
Religion discourages the status of women
Low literacy of women in the world: more than 640 million women in the world are illiterate (UN Secretary General).
Among the world’s children, 121 million are not in school, most of them girls.
Two-thirds of the world’s 774 million illiterate adults are women (UNICEF statistics)
Girls make up almost 60% of children who do not attend school.
Educating a girl saves lives for the world.
Women are more vulnerable to exploitation.
Girls without education are more at risk of being marginalized
Women’s rights and access to land, credit and education are limited; not only because of legal discrimination, but because more subtle barriers such as workload, mobility, and low bargaining positions at home and in the community prevent them from taking advantage of their legal right.
Status/employment of women: 90% of women working in the world are called housewives and are excluded from the formal definition of economic activity.
Women work longer hours than men and are not paid. Salaried women earn 17% less than men.
UK, Germany, Italy, France: Women are paid 75% of salary. In Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Australia they are paid 90%
Women do 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the food, but earn 10% of the income and own 1% of the property.
However, in some regions, women provide 70% of agricultural work, produce more than 90% of food, and yet are not represented in budget deliberations.
Women occupy only 24% of senior management positions globally, 34% of private companies globally do not have women in senior management. Managerial position: 39% in developed countries, 15% in Africa and 13% in Asia.
In the Arab States, only 28% of women participate in the labor force.
Laws of women and society
The first stage of discrimination begins with women when parents approach. In Nigeria, most small-scale agricultural businesses are owned by men. Women by nature have creative abilities, they are blessed with the ability to persist and pursue their desires, they are good and patient in raising children, and this tenacity usually transfers to business, they are good innovators, they have the ability to develop passion for what they believe.
Many researchers have shown that poverty is a disease that economically disables its victim and indirectly subjects them to a state of destitution, voicelessness, powerlessness, and even violence (World Bank 2000; Okojie, 2002). Unfortunately, the sex most affected by the above disabilities are women and children. Statistics show that women are poorer than men. The UNDP (2008) estimated that about 70% of the world’s poor are women. Women are poorer because they are economically more vulnerable.
The findings of Thane (1978), Showalter (1987) and Lewis Piachered (1987) cited in Magaji’s (2004) Introduction to Project Evaluation showed that women have been the poorer sex throughout the 20th century and have formed a substantial majority of the poor ever since. poverty was recognized for the first time. On why women are the poorer sex, women’s physical strength and various challenges limit them to specific soft duties that make it difficult to be an entrepreneur.
Therefore, enterprise development is a crucial tool for the economic empowerment of women.
The benefits derived from women’s empowerment are implausible, beginning with the advancement of the family and ultimately affecting national and global economic advancement.
If women are empowered to do more and be more, the potential for economic growth becomes clear; Eliminating half of a nation’s work based solely on gender can have detrimental effects on that nation’s economy. It is the nation that combines the strengths of women and men that will lead the world’s development (Kiyosaki 1993) in the field of agriculture and other sectors.
One study found that of Fortune 500 companies, “those with more women on the board of directors had significantly higher financial returns, including a 53 percent higher return on equity, a 24 percent higher return on sales and a 67 per cent higher return on invested capital (OECD, 2008).” This study shows the impact that women can have on the overall economic benefits of a company. If implemented on a global scale, the inclusion of women in the formal workforce (such as a Fortune 500 company) can increase a nation’s economic output.
Entrepreneurship or investment is not an exclusive reserve of any kind. Both women and men generate the same result as long as they follow the investment principles. Kiyosaki (1993) demonstrates with statistical data in the United States that women are better investors than men. Additionally, a study by the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC) found that women-only clubs achieved an average annual return of 32% since 1951 versus 23% for men-only investment clubs. The verdict is; women know how to manage money and can be more entrepreneurial than men if the various obstacles to development are removed or minimized.
In addition, entrepreneurship will provide women with the opportunity to own businesses, thereby increasing their personal wealth. Women’s entrepreneurship will, of course, generate much-needed employment in Africa’s developing economies and bring the long-excluded population of women into the workforce, thereby empowering them.
The best way to fight poverty and extremism is to educate and empower women.
The limitations that prevent women from achieving similar achievements to men in business development.
Finance
Labor and education
Culture and tradition
Technology
Misconceptions about women
entrepreneurial attitude
gender inequality
