Nigerian Women And Covid-19 Pandemic

The emergence of the dreaded Coronavirus infectious disease (CoVid-19) in late 2019, its rapid spread and overall effects across the globe are crucial to contemporary world history. The pandemic has substantial implications on overall nations’ politics and foreign policy, economy and social progression. In Nigeria, livelihood is greatly affected by economic lockdown, restrictions to movement, the needs to self-isolate and closure of schools. Among other things, the ‘stay at home’ of school age children meant that women stay back at home to care for the children which also increased the chores to be done. As lockdown continues to force families to remain together at home, additional tension and frustration are created, leading to increase in domestic abuses. The experiences compound the spate of gender inequality and the generic challenges Nigerian women face in their daily living. This paper looks at the gender impacts of CoVid-19 by investigating the internal logic of feminine experiences of the pandemic in Nigeria. It unpacks how women are affected economically, their strategies to survive the pandemic and the implications of these for effecting social change in the post-pandemic era. This is with a view to understanding the dynamics of women’s survival ingenuity in challenging situations.