Gender Disparity in Education, Employment and Access to Productive Resources as Deterrent to Economic Development

Abstract

World over, equality in education, employment and access to productive resources have been noted as needed indicators for economic development. Education has been recognized as a fundamental human right and is signatory to the major conventions for the protection of the rights of children and women, especially, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In 2003, the Government of Nigeria passed into Law the Child rights Act. This act is aimed at facilitating the realization and protection of the rights of all children. In the quest to achieve the objectives of Education For All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Nigeria also enacted the Universal Basic Education (UBE) law, which provides for a 9-year free and compulsory basic education to fast-track education interventions at the primary and junior secondary levels. So also has been the trend with employment and access to productive resources. The question posed here is, how has these policy efforts been attainable? Is it because of the policies are not duly formulated, or duly formulated but poorly implemented, or both? There are still challenges on gender and geographic disparity, access to formal education, sex preferences, employment discretion, and access to productive resources where needful and useful. Faced with this discrepancies, the researchers dare to assess the various trend and causes of this disparity among this three units thereby suggesting attainable methodology which would help reduced the problem projecting sustainable growth for the nation.