This study describes and analyzes the impact of Structural Adjustment Programmes
(SAPs) on the Jos women in the informal sector, as well as the strategies women adopt to
ensure the survival of their businesses and families. Studies that have investigated the impact
of SAP on women in the informal sector tend to take a rather disparate approach. Against
this background, the present study develops a coherent conceptual framework for
understanding the impact of SAPs on women in the sector.
From an interview survey conducted with one hundred and fifty (150) Jos women in
the informal urban sector, the study elicited data on the activities of the women and the ways
SAPs affect their access to productive and reproductive resources, as well as on the
responses of the women to SAPs-engendered socio-economic hardships. The data reveal that
the Jos women engage in numerous income-generating activities, mostly in small-scale, low-income
circulatory and service activities which are largely marginalized and bereft of
institutionalized resources. In addition to their productive and income-generating activities,
the Jos women perform the bulk of the reproductive and domestic work necessary for the
support of the family. As well, the women perform some extra-household work for the
welfare of the community and environment. The study shows that the Jos women are
adversely affected by SAPs. Structural Adjustment Programmes are further limiting their
access to business commodities, credit, stalls, information and training, food, healthcare,
education and transportation facilities. Consequently, women are finding it difficult to
maintain their businesses and families. Amidst the adverse effects of SAPs, the women are
resiliently and innovatively responding to SAPs through numerous business and familial
survival strategies. In addition to the responses of the Jos women, the Nigerian State, is
attempting to reduce poverty among women through its various women-centered
programmes.
The study attributes the adverse and limiting effects of SAPs on the Jos women's
access to resources to a number of forces. These include (a) the Nigerian limited and
discriminatory opportunity structures which predispose women to the largely marginalized
informal activities, (b) the small-scale and low-income nature of women's informal
activities, (c) the unequal and exploitative relationship between the informal and formal
sectors in which women provide consumer goods at low-cost for the regeneration of
capitalist labour, (d) the circulatory and service nature of women's informal activities, (e)
the gender- and class-biased structures inherent in SAPs, as well as in SAPs' implementing
mechanisms and institutions and (f) women's altruistic and selfless attitudes.
The study observes that the responses of both the Jos women and the Nigerian State
to SAPs-engendered hardships are, at best, palliative or even cosmetic. The responses do not
address the strategic needs of women. Hence the study makes a case for a transformatory
strategy through the empowerment of women. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/10836 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Nnazor, Agatha Ifeyinwa |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 14067553 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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