Socio-Cultural Impediments to the Effective Education of Women in Nigeria: A Re-Appraisal

Abstract

This paper focuses on the socio-cultural impediments to the effective education of women in our society. The “African women” noted that, there are some impediments that stall women socio-economic development. It is common knowledge that education is an important tool in enhancing the development of any nation worldwide. There is also this saying that, if you educate a woman, you educate the nation at large but this is not the same for our women in Nigeria as there are impediments to socio-cultural to their education. For instance, lack of entrepreneurship skills, non-availability of capital, scarcity of functional programmes that can lead to acquisition of knowledge, awareness, emancipation and empowerment of women. Late Mary Babangida in 1987 blamed it on the backwardness of the women. In a newspaper statement headlined “past government neglected women’s needs, she claimed that the past governments of Nigeria did not make much effort in trying to alleviate the plight and position of the rural women. Socio-cultural impediments are those factors or things that are barriers to women education in our society especially in the rural areas. The researcher concluded and made some recommendations amongst which are; special scholarship scheme should be provided for women to enable more of them go to school. Schools in rural areas should be well equipped to attract qualified teachers and to give quality education to the rural dwellers.