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Article Title:
Social Implications of the Economic Reform Process in Nigeria since the Onset of Current Democratic Dispensation: A Gender Perspective
by Alonge, Sunday Kolawole and Ajala, Adebayo Olukunle

Abstract:
Reforms in general are meant to improve development process in a country. Economic reforms have two major facets: the policy and the institutional components. Some of the economic reforms since the onset of the current democratic dispensation include privatization and deregulation. Privatization was partly designed to reduce the role and size of the public sector. Its negative impact on women stems from the prevailing gender inequalities; resulting from attitudes, prejudices and assumptions concerning the roles assigned to men and women, which are learnt, and largely determines the type of work women and ultimately determines their income level. Given the above scenarios, Nigerian women are at the receiving end in three major ways as far as privatization and deregulation are concerned. First, privatization will necessarily lead to ?down-sizing? which will affect women more because of their low level of education and skills. Secondly, they have to pay more for goods and services with little income. This shows that there are gender implications of economic reforms, which will have effect on the realization of our developmental goals. Gender mainstreaming is a necessary condition to mitigate the impact of the reform on men and women and ensuring optimal development. The essence of this paper is to highlight what is needed to be done by policy makers to make economic reforms (privatisation and deregulation) more gender equitable to enhance national development.

Keywords: economic reforms, gender, democratic, privatisation, deregulation

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