Assessment of Women Participation in Politics in Gusau and Gummi Local Government Areas of Zamfara State

Previous studies mainly discussed problems of women participation in politics in Nigeria without touching on women political empowerment, thus this research was carried out in order to cover the gap. The study examines the relationship between educational attainment, economic empowerment, cultural factors and political empowerment on women participation in politics using Zamfara State as a unit of analysis. Feminist theory was used to test the relationship. Quantitative method was used, questionnaire was adapted from previous studies and 400 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in two local governments of Zamfara state that is Gusau and Gummi Local Governments, 374were retrieved. The findings shows that there is relationship between women economic empowerment and participation in politics in Zamfara State with .000 significant, the relationship between women educational attainment and participation in politics in Zamfara State was rejected with .436 significant, the relationship between women political empowerment and participation in politics in Zamfara State was also rejected with .151 and the relationship between cultural factor and women participation in politics in Zamfara State was accepted with .000 significant. The paper recommends culture affecting women participation should be eradicated as well as economic empowerment of women.

Keywords: Local government, participation, politics & women.