Women and Leadership: Contributions of Women in Nigeria’s Political and Sociological Landscape

There is no gainsaying the fact that today, women are playing significant an increasinglyprominent role all over the world. Women have proven beyond reasonable doubt that theyare not a second class to their male counterparts. In Pre-colonial era those women likeMoremi, Queen Aminat and Efunsetan Iyalode of Ibadan land were women that havecontributed to nation building particularly in Nigeria. Even in the Post-Colonial era theyencouraged children to relate positively to each other and to take responsibility at family,local and national levels. Similarly, they inspire them to participate fully in the communityand help to develop an understanding of citizenship. At the societal realm, women areknown to constitute the bulk of traders, farmers, while some engage in politics and othersin technical professions. In the religious sphere, specifically in the traditional religion ofthe people, they serve as priestesses, diviners, healers, praise-singers, etc. In Christianity,women are known as evangelist, preachers, choristers, as well as constituting a goodproportion of other church workers. This paper adopted survey and purposive method byconducting questionnaire of 150 out of which 108 were recovered. This work noticed thatAfrican women are not given total freedom to display their God giving talents yet the viewthat are at the helm of affairs have proven that gender has nothing to do when it comes toresponsibility. It was recommended that both men and women should be given equalopportunity to serve.