The Single-Sex View of Gender and Gender Inequality in a Nigerian Ivory Tower

This paper examines gender inequality in a female dominated academic unit in a purposefully selected university in south-western Nigeria. It examines the participants’ understanding of the terms "gender", “men doing gender”, establishes how these perceptions affect male staff and students doing gender, and suggests what can be done to encourage men to participate in gender studies. One of the federal universities in Nigeria that has a Gender Studies Unit was purposively selected. In all, 256 semi structure questionnaires were administered. Out of these numbers, 200 questionnaires were retrieved and analyzed. The results showed that less than 50% (49%) of the respondents defined gender study as the study of men and women. Others (2%) understood gender be the study of men, while 10% had no clear understanding of what gender means. Also, 45% of the respondents said gender is about women and men, 44% stated it was about women, 4% had no clear idea of what gender implies, and 1% of them affirmed that gender is about men. On the perceptions about “men doing gender”, 22% of the respondents were of the view that a negative perception about “men doing gender” would make them lose confidence in themselves, 21.5% stated it would limit their capacity to develop their full potential, and 21% believed it might have adverse effects on men’s career progression. About 20.5% of the respondents affirmed that such a perception would create a lack of interest in this field of study, while 15% affirmed that it would limit their interest in pursuing a career in gender studies. The policy implications of the study were also highlighted and discussed.