Gender in niGeria report 2012 - Economic Commission for Africa

Gender in Nigeria Report 2012: Improving the Lives of Girls and Women in Nigeria 15
seated barriers clearly need to be examined and addressed. Table 5 shows that in
2007 Nigerian men received on average the equivalent of N2,300 per month more than
Nigerian women (Oyelere, 2007). The income gap rose by a minimum of US$23 per
month during this period. This inequality belies the positive fact that women received
a 28% increase in mean income (over N2,300 per month in 2007) between 1998 and
2005 (Oyelere, 2007).
When the incomes of men and women with the same education levels are
compared, women at every educational level earn less than their male
counterparts and men with less education in some cases earn more than more
educated female peers (see table 8). For example, women with tertiary education
earn the same as men having secondary education qualifications, while women with
secondary education have similar incomes to men with no education at all. One of
the pathways to women’s empowerment is through education and employment. Quite
clearly, it is not straightforward in Nigeria to improve income by means of educational
qualifications; structural barriers will need to shift before education can make a
difference for women.
Table 6. Differences in mean income pre- and post-democracy. Nigeria.
Brackets (median income); *change
statistically significant; 5% significance
level; pre-democracy 1998/99; postdemocracy
2004/5.
Source: Oyelere (2007: 24).
Education
Pre-
1999
No schooling 58.81
(109.34)
1-5 years 93.24
(925.5)
F Primary 71.71
(105.07)
F Secondary 88.81
(77.63)
Tertiary 131.38
(108.73)
Women
(mean income in real Naira)
Post-
1999
64.66
(216.53)
82.14
(251.04)
85.06
(184.52)
108.22
(129.28)
190.29
(387.68)
Change
5.85*
(2.46)
-11.11
(24.6)
13.35*
(2.69)
19.40*
(2.8)
58.91*
(13.93)
Men
(mean income in real Naira)
Pre-
1999
85.26
(289.70)
109.00
(183.05)
108.96
(158.68)
129.31
(171.68)
179.11
(193.86)
Post-
1999
109.02
(238.85)
125.04
(150.83)
142.04
(314.56)
177.16
(217.00)
241.01
(398.42)
Change
23.77*
(2.44)
16.03*
(5.12)
33.08*
(3.62)
47.86*
(3.67)
61.9*
(9.05)
Table 6 suggests that tertiary education gives the best returns for women in
contemporary Nigeria. It is women with a tertiary education who have benefited the
most from democratisation. Although at this level the gender pay gap has reduced,
women still earn 20% less than men (N190 compared to N241). Returns to primary
and secondary education for women are relatively much lower when compared with
male earnings, both before and after democratisation. Since democratisation, women
educated to primary level still earn little more than half what their male counterparts earn
(N85 versus N142); and at this level income growth for women has been a third lower
than growth for men (2.69 versus 3.62). Given the now acknowledged association
between female incomes and family outcomes, this analysis raises the question:
how many children would be lifted out of poverty if gender wage parity was
achieved? Put differently, how many of the 800,000 under fives who die each
year would survive childhood diseases? These important moral questions are
beyond the scope of this work, but the cost of inequality in Nigeria is much higher than
often assumed.