Gender role belief, ethnic embeddedness, religious commitment and political participation among women in Enugu South East, Nigeria

Abstract

This study looked at gender role beliefs, ethnic identity, religious commitment and their relationship with political participation among women. Two hundred and eighty participants (280) were drawn using convenience sampling from the University Communities of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu and Caritas University Enugu. One hundred and ninety (190) were married while ninety (90) were single. Also the age ranges of the participants were 28 to 63years, with a mean age of 44.83 and standard deviation of 9.04. 100% of the participants were of Igbo ethnic group in the South East region of Nigeria. Adopting a correlational design, Pearson moment correlation statistics was used to analyze the data. We hypothesized that endorsement of traditional gender roles will negatively be associated with political participation. Also ethnic embeddedness and religious commitment will positively be associated with political participation among women. The results showed that gender role belief significantly correlated negatively with political participation (r = -.77, P<.01, r² =.59); ethnic embeddedness significantly correlated positively with political participation (r = .74, P<.01, r²=.55) and religious commitment significantly correlated positively with political participation (r = .67, P<.01, r²=.44). It was concluded that political education is required and to buffer the belief systems of women to drop traditional beliefs that subjugate women and promote patriarchy. Religious organizations should use their platform to encourage their members more to be engaged politically and the government should introduce policies that ensure equity, fairness and justice to every ethnic group whether minor or major.