© Kamla-Raj 2004                                                                           Anthropologist,6(4): 273-278  (2004)

Community Perception of Women Occupying Leadership Position in

 Rural Development Projects of Osun State, Nigeria

A.J. Farinde¹, E. O. Okunade² and E.A.Laogun¹

1.  Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

2. Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria

KeyWords Community Perception. Leadership Position. Rural Development. Community Head.

Abstract A social survey study was conducted on the community perception of women occupying leadership position in Osun State, Nigeria. Eighteen (18) women groups were selected purposely from 6 Local Government Areas (LGAs) based on the concentration of women group from each of the 6 administrative zones of the state. Pretested structured interview schedule was used to collect information from 108 women Local leaders selected from the 18 groups. Six (6) focus group discussions were held to generate qualitative data from communities in each of the LGAs selected. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, percentages and mean were used to analyze the data. Relationship between perception andvariables investigated was determined with regression coefficient. Results showed that women occupying formal position like head of educational institutions, health institutions, social clubs cooperative, chief of a community were accepted to the community people. But the community frown at women occupying social position associated with traditions e.g head (Baale) of a community and belief systems of people e.g. Imam of a mosque. It is highly scored that women have greater role to play in the community and that women have potentials to occupy positions of authority.

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