Socio-Cultural Perceptions and Gender Disparity in Civil Service Employment in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated socio-cultural perceptions and gender disparity with particular reference to employment of many women in the civil service of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.  It examined the perception of level of formal education on the employment of men and women and the perception of marital status and its influence on the employment of male and female civil servants in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service.  After reviewing the background and the relevant literature together with the theoretical framework, conceptual and empirical information, the researchers adopted the expost-facto design for the study. The population consisted of all the civil servants employed by Akwa Ibom State Civil Service and they number 13,057 of which 6070 were female while 6987 were male. The study used a sample size of 1300 employees representing 10% of the total population with a research-made instrument to gather relevant information.  The researchers, with the assistance of the secretaries to the permanent secretaries in each of the sampled ministries administered the instrument and retrieved them within one week. Data collected were analysed with the t-test statistics. The result revealed that the calculated t-test value of 1.25 at 0.05 level of significance was less than the critical value of 1.96, thus the null hypothesis 1 was accepted in favour of the alternative hypothesis.  The same result was obtained for the second hypothesis. It was therefore concluded that the perception of formal level of education and marital status significantly influence the employment of male and female civil servants in Akwa Ibom State more particularly to the advantage of the men-folk. More preference in employment should be given to the women to bring them at par with their male counterpart.

Keywords: Civil Service, Gender, Employment, Employment in Nigeria