Rural Women Empowerment Initiatives and Poverty Alleviation in Enugu State, Nigeria

Eneh, Felix Okwudili and Obianagwa, Christoper Ewuzie and Onwuadi, Charles Chibuike and Ugwuozor, Ifeanyi Samuel (2025) Rural Women Empowerment Initiatives and Poverty Alleviation in Enugu State, Nigeria. Journal of Xi’an Shiyou University, Natural Science Edition, 21 (7). pp. 234-272. ISSN 1673-064X

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Abstract

This study investigated rural women empowerment initiatives for poverty alleviation in Enugu State, Nigeria. The study was guided by five (5) specific purposes, which were in line with the five (5) research questions that guided the study. Five (5) null hypotheses were also formulated for the study which was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the descriptive survey design (quantitative and qualitative). The population of the study was 609 registered members of women cooperative societies in Enugu State, Nigeria. A sample size of 305 respondents was drawn for the study using multistage sampling procedure. Instruments developed by the researchers titled ‘‘Rural Women Empowerment Initiative for Poverty Alleviation Questionnaire (RWIPAQ)’’ were used for data collection in the study. The questionnaire was divided into sections A and B, where A focused on personal data of the respondents. Section B has a total of 39 items and was divided into five clusters – A to E in line with the research purposes and research questions. The instruments were given to three experts for face validation. The reliability of the questionnaire instrument was established by conducting a trail testing – administering 20 copies of the instruments to registered members of women organization in Awka South Local Government of Anambra State. The Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions while one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that rural women empowerment initiatives can help in poverty alleviation in Enugu State. Specifically, findings of the study revealed that: (i) rural women’s empowerment in agro-processing and agricultural cooperation help in poverty alleviation in Enugu State; (ii) rural women’s empowerment in skill development and digital literacy is very low in Enugu State; and (ii) several factors, including poor financial status of women, lack of political will by the government, socio-cultural norms of women’s subjugation by their husbands, and others hinder rural women’s engagement in poverty alleviation initiatives in Enugu State. The main limitation of this study was the inability to use the whole population of the study due to its broadness. The study recommends, among others, that there is need for rural women’s empowerment in Enugu State through the establishment of agro-processing industries, cooperative societies, skill development and digital literacy initiatives, as a measure to lift them from feminized poverty. Keyword

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Management and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	miss Sylvia Onyia
Date Deposited:	23 Aug 2025 20:27
Last Modified:	23 Aug 2025 20:27
URI:	http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/5181

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