Women's Empowerment and the Well-Being of the Unemployed Women in Yakurr, Nigeria
Issues on women's deprivation, marginalization and empowerment are well documented in literature. The impact of women's empowerment on the well-being of unemployed women in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria, is yet to receive sufficient investigation from scholars. Thus, this study explores the relationship between women's empowerment and the well-being of the unemployed women, aged 18-45 years in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. It specifically examines the types and access to available women's empowerment programmes, the nature of empowerment programmes that women have benefitted from, as well as areas of positive impact in the context of socio-economic well-being. The study adopted an exploratory design using quantitative and qualitative data, obtained from 660 unemployed women recruited via multi-stage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi square in testing the two hypotheses. Results indicate that 31.9% of respondents reported the provision of agricultural facilities as the most common women's empowerment programme, while 58.3% acknowledge that they have benefitted from any given women's empowerment programme. A total of 19.9% indicated that they have benefitted from micro-credit facilities, while 20.8% reveal that women's empowerment programmes have positively impacted their well-being. Findings further reveals a statistically significant relationship between education and the impact of women's empowerment programmes; and a statistically significant relationship between place of residence and the impact of women's empowerment programmes. Based on the findings, it was concluded that women's empowerment programmes have positively impacted the well-being of unemployed women in Yakurr, Nigeria. Thus, there is an urgent need for the Cross Rivers State Government to develop grassroot women's empowerment programmes that will enable these women to take advantage of available resources and to know that apart from ...