Women Leadership and Integrity in the 21st Century Nigeria

Abstract

The 21st century Nigeria has witnessed an impressive rise in women involvement in leadership and unimaginable substantial success has been recorded both in the secular and religious settings. Scholars around the world have affirmed that gender-based division of leadership is fading gradually and women are more and more stepping up into leadership roles in most of the global societies. Yet, in a male-dominated society like Nigeria, women subjugation in the aspect of leadership is still being blamed for integrity. Using both historical and descriptive approaches and guided by Liberal feminism theory, this paper examines women leadership based on integrity in 21st century Nigeria. It establishes the fact that traditionally in the past centuries, women have been hindered from attaining some important leadership post in Nigeria. Nonetheless, some women have demonstrated integrity in leadership in 21st century Nigeria both in the secular and the religious settings. It also posits that Integrity in leadership is not determined by gender but a function of individual behavioural factors. It concludes that women are active and effective leaders with integrity that are unavoidably needed in this 21st century Nigeria.