Exploring the Effects of Cultural Norms of inheritance On Women’s Access to Family Resources in South-South Nigeria
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Achieving women development and equality in the access and control of family/community resources is pertinent goal of human development. However, women often suffer from exclusion in the access to household resources, which vast body of literature on women development have attributed to patriarchy and all its adjoining structures, such as the cultural norms of inheritance. Using a cross-sectional research design, this paper, investigated the effects of Cultural Norms of Inheritance on women’s access to family resources in South-South Nigeria. The paper employed the Normative Social Behaviour Theory as its theoretical framework, and through it, created reoccurring themes that buttressed the position of the paper. In the course of research, it was found that women are denied access to family and household resources through socio-cultural givens embedded in inheritance norms. This restriction in access to rights to properties constrains the abilities and potentials of women, affects their abilities to fend for themselves and their dependents after the death of her spouse, and also limits their contributions to the development of their societies. Through this study, it was discovered that government programmes aimed at addressing poverty among women often end in failures. On this backdrop, this paper among other things, recommended that the government and local community leaders must implement social investment programmes aimed at women development in their areas of influence and increase the participation of women local politics, so as to enable them influence norms that affect their lives.
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