A Survey of Cultural and Traditional Implication on Women’s Rights to Land for Development

Abstract

Recent research effort on women’s right suggests that women are considered or treated as legal minors or have unequal status or entitlement to inheritance shares which impacts on their ability to acquire, enjoy, transfer and manage their inheritance in land. The paper, therefore considers the theoretical potentials for such treatment to women, and empirically analyze the factors impacting on the extent of influence community may exert on women’s right. To accomplish this aim, questionnaires were administered using multi-stage hierarchical stratified sampling to communities’ traditional rulers/chiefs of Oke-Ogun, North of Oyo State of Nigeria. Using mean rating point, the survey ranked these factors; culture, belief and level of education as the most significant factors. The result of the chi-square test however provides statistical relationship between the sex, age, religion and years on the post and their perception on women’s right to land.