Deconstructing gender inequality: implications for women leadership and COVID-19 recovery in Nigeria

Evidence suggests that the COVID-19 crisis has affected women more severely than their male counterparts. Thus, impeding the progress towards achieving gender equality and inclusion in society. The pandemic has the potential to undo more than decade-long progress on women's equality, particularly in employment and leadership. This development has increased research interest in the barriers to women's advancement in leadership, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper explores Nigeria's gendered leadership and deconstructs how situated cultural norms feed into organisational practices to hinder women's participation in leadership in key sectors of the Nigerian economy. Specifically, it adopts a radical feminist perspective to explicate and justify the importance of women's inclusion in tackling the post-pandemic effects. It relies on the issues uncovered from the review of relevant studies to offer a way forward for future research and practice in this area. Organisations are urged to review and restructure their processes to ensure that women's contributions are not diminished, and research should consider identifying and amplifying women's leadership authority and expression.