Women and Commitment to Trade Union Activities in South West Nigeria

摘要

Prior to the advent of British colonialist in Nigeria, work outside the home setting wasconsidered strange and unfavorable by members of the society. Women were expected to be primarilyresponsible to their families and other roles outside this were secondary. Things have taken a new turn;yet, the belief is that women are not to be too much involved in wage employment especially on issuessurrounding it like trade unionism. This study therefore aims at understanding the contributions of womento trade union movement in south west Nigeria. A total number of six hundred and forty female workersin wage employment were selected for this study through a multi stage random sampling technique acrossfive major trade unions across south west Nigeria. Qualitative method in form of in depth interview wasalso conducted for fifteen female members to complement the questionnaires collected. The study brieflyreviewed relevant literatures and situated the work in pluralist perspective. Three hypotheses were equallytested for this work and findings revealed that women play active roles in trade union activities (P<0.05).However, cultural factors still limit women in their commitments and contributions to trade unionactivities, more especially due to the attitude of their male counterparts. This study therefore recommendspossible ways by which females can contribute more to the development of trade union movement inNigeria.