CULTURE, WOMEN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Culture is an essential element that aids an understanding of how women can participate and contribute
to Sustainable Development. The realization of the power of culturetotransform and bring about social
inclusion, resilience, and sustainable development, is viewed as key to sustainable development.This
paperin attempt to discuss the influence of culture on women and how it impacts on sustainable
development, examineswomen's participation in Sustainable Development from the perspectives of
culture and women's: roles in society, education,politics, and health. The paper adopts a qualitative
method using secondary data to review literatures on the influence of culture on women and their
participation in sustainable development in Nigeria. The study reveals that women suffer different forms
of exploitation and are oppressed,they face institutionalized discrimination in workplaces, and have
different capacities from men,they take responsibility for domestic work as well as engage in paid labor,
they play advisor roles to their male relations who are political leaders, and face health challenges that
can impede their contributions to development. To attain sustainable development therefore, the paper
recommends that a change in cultural perspectives on womenshould be encouraged to facilitate their
participation and contributions to sustainable development.