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Gender Discrimination and its Implication on Performance of Local Government Staff in Oyo State, Nigeria

Bassey Moses Igwe

The local government is the third tier of government and the closest to the people. However, over the years it has performed below expectation leading to many people calling for its abolition. Many factors have been identified as responsible for its poor performance; among which is the placing of women who are fundamental parts of the society in a disadvantaged position. The paper examined the effect of gender discrimination on job performance among the staff of the ATISBO Local Government (ALG) area of Oyo State. The paper adopted the Descriptive Survey; the populations of this study were 456 staff working in ALG (National Union of Local Government Employees, 2019). A sample size of 50 respondents, purposively drawn participated in the study. The paper also used both primary (qualitative and quantitative) and secondary sources of data. The quantitative data were the 50 questionnaires administered on the staff of ALG while the qualitative data were 5 Key Informant Interviews (KII) conducted on the Head of Departments (administration and general service, education and social service, agriculture, finance and supplies and budget, planning research and statistics). The secondary data are books, journals, articles consulted, etc. The paper discovered that cases of gender discrimination exist in ALG; this is attributed to the nature of the Nigerian State (patrilineal, religion, and culture). The conclusion is that a nation without the full participation of women cannot achieve full development. Despite an insignificant difference in the work performance of male and female employees, the females are considerably underestimated. The paper recommended that the LG should be made liberal for all gender to participate fully as this will lead to improved job performance and the local government achieving its purpose of establishment.