Abuja, Nigeria. March 10th, 2020 – NOIPolls joined the rest of the world in celebrating the 2020 International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8th March 2020. The IWD is a worldwide annual event aimed at achieving gender equality globally. The theme for this year is “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”, #EachforEqual. The Day was an opportunity to reflect on the progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women, who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

In commemoration of the IWD, NOIPolls conducted a public opinion poll to gauge the perception of Nigerians on gender equality in the country. The poll result revealed that there is an enormous gap in gender equality in Nigeria especially in politics, family, and society at large. 66 percent of Nigerians were of the view that there is gender inequality in Nigeria, however, 73 percent admitted that there should be gender equality regardless of what the current situation is in the country.

Further findings revealed that women are not currently given equal opportunities as men in politics, family, and society as stated by more than 56 percent of the respondents in each category. However, this perception is slightly different with respect to the workplace as 54 percent of Nigerians agreed that women are currently given equal opportunity as men in that area. It is, therefore, important that the issue of gender inequality is tackled to allow for a diversity of opinion and participation of different groups in the country. Interestingly, 65% of Nigerians are of the opinion that the status quo should be maintained while 15 percent believe that gender equality can be achieved by passing the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill (GEOB) by members of the National Assembly.

Lastly, most Nigerians (62 percent) disclosed that gender should not be considered when deciding on a leadership position rather merit, capability and qualification should be the yardstick for deciding leadership positions. Hence, this is a call that women should be in the forefront of societal development as well as having a better representation in leadership positions. These are key findings from the gender equality poll conducted in the week commencing February 24th, 2020.

International Women’s day is a day set aside by the United Nations to celebrate women and their achievements in various facets of life. It also a day to reflects on the progress made in the pursuit of gender equality given that no country in the world has achieved gender equality. Statistics have shown that about 2.7 billion women around the world could not access the same choice of jobs as men because of legal restrictions which clearly shows the issue of gender inequality in the world. Also, less than 25 percent of parliamentarians around the world were women as of 2019.

SOURCE:https://brandspurng.com/2020/03/11/iwd-66-of-nigerians-think-that-there-is-no-gender-equality-in-the-country-report/

Traditional responsibilities in Nigeria are not the same thing as what you have in mind.