DETERMINANTS OF FEMALE PARTICIPATION IN UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the determinants of female participation in university governance in Nigeria. Specifically, the effect of socio-cultural and political factors on female participation in university governance and the effect of females’ involvement or non-involvement in university governance were examined. The study adopted a quantitative research design using survey questionnaire to collect data. A total of 2,880 members of academic and nonacademic staff of the Nigerian public universities were carefully selected from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Selection was done through stratified and simple random sampling. Two research questions and two research hypotheses were answered and tested in the study. Two sets of questionnaire designed by the researchers and validated by specialists served as the instruments for data collection. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics (Mean, Percentage and Standard deviation), while the hypotheses postulated were tested using inferential statistics (Regression Analysis / Analysis of Variance and Chi Square) respectively. Based on these analyses, the findings of the study include that: Female participation in university governance in Nigeria is significantly dependent upon socio-cultural and political factors; female involvement in university governance has a significant influence on effective university governance in Nigeria. In line with the findings of the study and the conclusion drawn therein, the following recommendations were made: Deliberate laws should be enacted giving female staff equal opportunity (50%) to mandatorily get involved in university governance; female staff are hereby encouraged to confidently declare their interest in participating in university governance; the era of retrogressive and obnoxious cultural belief is gone, therefore, female staff should shun all negative cultural beliefs hampering their participation and be ready to get involved in leadership positions to ensure good governance and effective university goals attainment in Nigeria; the few female staff in leadership positions in the Nigerian universities should avoid excessive rigidity and learn to demonstrate amiable and emulatable leadership character and qualities so as to attract more women to university leadership positions.