Community Power Structure: The Gender Perspective

The need to integrate the Nigerian women fully into the country’s development process poses a challenge which cannot be ignored. This is because societal development or progress cannot be achieved where the needs and contributions of half of the population who are women are downgraded, marginalized or ignored. The paper interrogates the perceived or real marginalization of women in the scheme of things in Nigeria in the face of women’s enormous propensity to contribute meaningfully to societal development. The study relied on secondary source of data collection and adopted “Decisional model” or approach as its analytical framework. The study found that woman’s potential contributions to societal development whether at the community or national level are often neglected and wasted due to some archaic traditions about the status of women in the society. The paper recommended that women be accorded their pride of place to make useful contributions to the progress of the Nigerian nation.