Citation:

Ali Ibrahim Abbas, Mustapha Alhaji Ali, Sani Garba Wakili. "An Overview of Nigeria and Malaysia Women's Participation in Politics: An Assessment of the Gender Gap" International Research Journal of Economics and Management Studies, Vol. 3, No. 5, pp. 83-92, 2024.

Abstract:

This paper studied and explained women’s participation in politics in Nigeria and Malaysia with an emphasis on the gender gap. Certainly, the two countries are patriarchal in nature, where men have dominated 80% of the policy and decisionmaking processes. This makes them less vigorous and understated in the politics of the two nations under investigation. The materials used for this study include books, journals, magazines, archives, reports, and newspapers. These documents were systematically reviewed to develop this article. This paper is qualitative in nature, where related literature was systematically reviewed. In explaining the topic under study, the researcher adopted Liberal Feminist theory. The advocates of this theory are Gergen, 1985; Sha, 2007; Walby, 1990; Igube, 2004; Rose, 2005. The assumption of this theory is that both men and women are born equal and need equal handling in all scopes of power. The theory is positioned on gender fairness among genders. This study found that women are underrepresented in politics in the two countries under study, i.e. Nigeria and Malaysia. The researcher further found that most of the political positions are being dominated by male counterparts. Again, the study unveiled that women are underrepresented and at the drawback not because they cannot execute but rather because they are seen as the weak gender. As a result, the study suggests that when women apply for political roles, the various political parties should treat them differently and offer them the same possibilities as men. For women to be very active in politics, spouses should admire and give women and wives the chance to take part and seek political power to display their capacity and skill for national economic and political progress.

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Keywords:

Assessment; Gender Gap; Nigeria; Malaysia; Overview; Politics; Women.