Does Poverty Discriminate between Genders? An Examination of Household Poverty in Niger State

Abstract

Gender inequality has been acknowledge as an important factor that is affecting poverty in the world both at micro and macro levels. Many countries around the world have been battling with the menace of poverty fro over decades with no serious achievement on its reduction despit some efforts gesred toward it under Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). This paper examines the impact of gender equality on household’s poverty reduction in Niger State. The paper investigates the impacts of gender equality and how it reduces the level of household’s poverty in Niger State. The study employs a set of households data generated fron the administration of structured questionnaire to 479 households in Niger State. The paper investigates the impact of gender equality on household’s poverty reduction in Niger State, Nigeria using Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) software and Structural Equation Model (SEM) as method of analysis. The results obtained shown evidence of gender inequality which has significantly affects the living standard of the households of women in the study area. Consequently, fulfilling a priori expectation that gender inequality has negative impact on household’s poverty reduction. The study suggests policy measures that would address household’s poverty reduction and gender inequality through girl- child education and women empowerment programme in Niger State in particular and Nigeria in general.