Rural Womens' Characteristics Affecting the Household Wellbeing in Olorunsogo Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

Rural women’s contributions to sustainable household wellbeing are functions of the status of their personal attributes. The study investigated the rural women’s characteristics that enhanced the household wellbeing in Olorunsogo Local Government Areas of Oyo State. A Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents for the study. Data on respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics, livelihood activities, living conditions, constraints to wellbeing, mitigation strategies employed, and dimensions of household wellbeing were collected and analysed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, and weighted mean scores) and inferential (PPMC and Chi-square). The result shows that the respondents’ mean age, household size, and monthly income were 39.9 years, 7.6 persons, and N24,699.15 respectively. The dimensions of household wellbeing were possessions of mobile phones (97.5%) and aluminium windows (97.5%) which was high for 67.5%. The respondents’ livelihood activities were Trading (WMS=2.53) and livestock rearing (WMS=1.81) with 50% living condition’s level. The main respondents’ constraint to household wellbeing was low income (WMS=1.95) and was high for 56.7%; while the main mitigating strategy employed was to take less preferred and less expensive food (WMS=1.95) and was low for 55% of the respondents. Significant relationship existed between respondents age (r=0.836), marital status (χ2=4.0872), primary occupation (χ2=4.4078), monthly income level (r=0.403), social organisation (χ2=4.0260) and the respondents wellbeing. The high constraints of the respondents do not influence the respondents’ wellbeing negatively due to the average living condition. Hence respondents should be encouraged to diversify their income sources for enhanced living condition to maintain the wellbeing status.