Gender Representation in Nigeria’s Foreign Policy Decision-Making: A Quantitative Analysis of the Foreign Affairs Committee
Abstract
The problem of gender representation in political organizations remains an important aspect of contemporary foreign policy decision-making, particularly in situations when women experience limited opportunities to participate in politics. The present paper analyzes the issues of gender representation in Nigeria's foreign policy decision-making, particularly in Foreign Affairs Committee, in order to find out whether gender representation and women's participation result in any political influence. Using the quantitative research design, a structured questionnaire was distributed among 40 respondents using the purposive sampling method. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis were utilized for data analysis. The results show that there are average perceptions of women's representation (M = 3.34), participation (M = 3.31), and political influence (M = 3.28) in contrast to gender inclusion in foreign policy decision-making (M = 3.54). Significant positive correlation was found between gender representation and political influence (r = 0.563, p < 0.001), women's participation and political influence (r = 0.573, p < 0.001) as well as gender representation and inclusive foreign policy decision-making (r = 0.466, p = 0.002). It can be concluded that despite the positive relationship between gender representation and women's political influence, numerical representation does not necessarily result in substantive participation in foreign policy decision-making process. Thus, the need for the promotion of gender representation, participation, and access to influential positions in foreign affairs organizations was identified.
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