Advocacy & Lobbying

Hello there, friend. I should be direct with you right from the start: this piece represents months of research into Nigerian cultural dynamics and years of experience observing how gender roles shape daily life across Nigeria’s diverse communities. What I’ve learnt during this time has fundamentally changed how I understand the relationship between tradition, modernity, and identity in Nigerian society.

I remember sitting in a Lagos restaurant last year, watching a young couple navigate who would pay the bill. The man reached for his wallet immediately, almost reflexively. The woman protested, insisting they split it. The waiter looked confused, unsure where to place the card machine. That moment encapsulated the complex dance between traditional expectations and contemporary realities that defines gender roles in Nigeria currently.

Gender roles in Nigerian culture operate across multiple dimensions. They influence everything from household responsibilities to career choices, from courtship protocols to political participation. Understanding these dynamics requires looking beyond simple generalisations to recognise how ethnicity, religion, education, and geography all shape what Nigerian society expects from men and women.

But here’s what makes this topic particularly fascinating (and occasionally frustrating): Nigerian gender roles are currently undergoing significant transformation. The traditional frameworks that governed gender relations for generations now exist alongside modern ideas about equality, autonomy, and shared responsibility. The result is neither purely traditional nor completely contemporary. Rather, it’s something distinctly Nigerian, shaped by our history whilst responding to present realities.

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Digital platforms are now central to political campaigning in Sri Lanka. During the 2025 local elections, they offered a clearer view of how political engagement unfolds online, particularly for women in public life. 

Drawing on Democracy Reporting International’s recent work on Sri Lanka’s 2025 local elections, analysis of Facebook and YouTube comments shared during the campaign period highlights how candidates were discussed on social media, the tone of those conversations, and the contrasting patterns of online responses directed at women and men in politics. 

Social media is often viewed as a space that can broaden participation and diversify political debate. In practice, however, online engagement around women candidates frequently extends beyond policy positions, shifting instead toward personal and gendered lines of commentary.

A global pattern

Women who step into public political life face coordinated campaigns of online abuse designed to silence them. In Europe and Central Asia, a 2023 UN Women study across 13 countries found that 53 percent of women online had experienced technology-facilitated violence. Across the Asia-Pacific region, 60 percent of women parliamentarians report facing online gender-based violence. In Brazil, analysis of online content during the 2020 São Paulo mayoral election found that female candidates were targeted with substantially higher levels of abusive and sexist commentary on social media platforms than their male counterparts. This has documented persistent attacks on women candidates’ competence, appearance, and morality, while male candidates were more frequently discussed in relation to policies and political performance.

Similar findings emerged from another analysis conducted in the Middle East and North Africa. Analysing online political discourse across several countries, reveals that women politicians were disproportionately targeted with gendered insults, sexualised language, and threats of violence. The volume and nature of abuse contributed to self-censorship, with many women limiting their online engagement to avoid harassment.

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Two former National Assembly Members have expressed concern over the low representation of women in political affairs, citing a lack of empowerment as well as cultural and religious barriers.

Speaking in separate interviews, Ndey Yassin Secka and Yakumba Jaiteh described the situation as a major setback to inclusive governance and national development.

Ndey Yassin Secka says women’s limited participation in decision-making processes undermines democracy, stressing the need for greater empowerment to enable women to contest presidential and parliamentary elections.

She noted that although women play leadership roles in society, they remain largely excluded from senior political positions.

“We understand that not all women are interested in politics, but even the few involved can make a significant difference,” Secka said, adding that politics should be transparent and inclusive.

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“As highlighted by CEDAW General Recommendation No. 40, parity and the full participation of women are the only way to guarantee the exercise of all other rights. It also serves as a safeguard against the discrimination and violence that women face in their daily functions and trajectories in public and political life” affirmed Bibiana Aido, UN Women Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean, opening the Regional Intergenerational Dialogue on Women’s Leadership. 

Echoing this call, Marcela Ríos Tobar, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at International IDEA, emphasized: “Effective parity has helped improve democracies in Latin America. Moving toward balanced representation between women and men in politics is an effective mechanism to strengthen the connection and legitimacy of institutions and to make equality a reality as a pillar of democracy.”

Referring to the European Union’s shared values, Minister Councillor Jesús Moreno Díaz from the Delegation of the European Union to Panama affirmed: “Gender equality is a fundamental pillar of democracy, peace and prosperity. In particular, equal participation in decision-making not only provides a balance that strengthens democracy and promotes its proper functioning, but also reflects in a more accurate way the composition of society, including the interests of women”. 

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Women’s rights activists and civil society organisations staged a protest in Kathmandu on Friday, accusing political parties of undermining the constitutional principles of inclusive democracy while selecting candidates under the proportional representation (PR) category for the House of Representatives elections scheduled for March 5.

The demonstration under the banner ‘‘Pressure campaign for women’s rights’’ began at Maitighar Mandala and concluded at Hotel Everest, New Baneshwar. Over 200 people participated.

The campaign was coordinated by the Women’s Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC) Nepal, an organisation working on women’s rights and gender equality, and the Federation of Non-Governmental Organisations Nepal, which supports and coordinates civil society initiatives across the country.

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Eighteen (18) out of twenty-two (22) registered political parties in The Gambia have signed a historic communiqué committing to concrete reforms to advance women’s political participation and representation, following the successful conclusion of a two-day National Conference on Women’s Political Participation and Representation.

The conference, held from 15–16 December 2025 at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center, was convened by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) through the EU-CODE-funded project, in partnership with the National Assembly, National Human Rights Commission, Gambia Press Union, and the CSO Gender Platform.

Held under the theme “Breaking Barriers, Building Power: Advancing Women’s Political Participation and Representation in The Gambia,” the conference brought together a broad spectrum of national stakeholders to assess the state of women’s political participation and agree on actionable reforms ahead of the country’s next electoral cycle.

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