Gender Dimension of Asset Poverty in the Near-Urban and Rural Households in Selected Local Government Areas of Oyo and Osun states, Nigeria

Abstract

Attempt was made to collect data on housing characteristics, household durable and semi-durable assets of the respondents to construct an asset index. Due to economic limitations, only 454 households were covered. Most women interviewed in the near urban were either divorced, separated or widowed. They were highly educated and lived in modern apartments owned by them or inherited from their spouses. This unlike their counterparts in the remote areas, though they remained in a married state by being widowed, they lived in poorer apartments and mostly uneducated. On the average, female headed household respondents were older with an average age of 58.6 years while that of the male headed counterpart was 56.2 years. In asset poverty, 18.5% males as against 24.2% of the female headed households were in the richest category. This is in contrast to the apriori expectation; Male headed households had educational advantage over their female headed counterparts at the primary, secondary and the university levels. Yoruba culture is patriarchal; hence 54.2% of the male headed households inherited land from their father side while 37.0% of the female headed households did. Average distance to water source was 0.54 kilometer for male headed households and 0.56 kilometer for the female headed households. Open defecation affected more males in that 16.5% of the male headed households and only 6.8% of the female headed households had no toilets facilities.    Female headed households use mobile phones and television sets/DVD, remittances, cooperarative societies and the micro finance houses and commercial banking than their male counterparts.