The Role of Migration in Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

The research examines the relationship between the migration of men and the empowerment of women who remain in the households. The study looks at Nigeria – a Sub-Saharan African country with the highest migration outflows and prevalent gender inequality. The core research question is to examine whether the migration of men affects the entrepreneurship and empowerment of Nigerian women. For the purpose of this study, private entrepreneurship will state the employment status of women from both migrant and non-migrant households while the amount of housework and degree of decision-making power will constitute empowerment. The data is obtained from Nigerian General Household Survey 2018-2019. The sample used in the current analysis consists of 12,199 women, 15 years and older. The Ordinary Least Squares model is applied to assess the changes men’s migration might bring to the housework of women who remain in the household. Logit regression addresses the entrepreneurship and decision-making power of women in Nigeria. Probit regression serves as a robustness check for Logit, and as a separate econometric model. The findings generally support the pre-experiment expectations: migration of men decreases the amount of housework of women in Nigeria, encourages them to run businesses, but reduces their decision-making power.