Responding to Widows' Vulnerability and Empowerment in Rural Nigeria

This book provides a lens for analysing the situation of widows in very patriarchal and gender biased societies. Since the publication of the report of the UN Women 2000 and Beyond in 2001, and another - entitled Invisible, Forgotten Sufferers: The Plight of Widows around the World in 2008, which aimed to promote the goals of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action in the area of widows¿ empowerment, most developing countries including Nigeria have come to realise the benefit of channelling their resources towards the empowerment of these women, especially those in the grassroots where cultural factors and underdevelopment impact on their well-being (Louder Please, 2013). This book does not only analyse the widows' conditions but goes on to proffer strategies for responding to the widows poor conditions. It equally highlighted the widows' coping strategies and suggested how development organisations can better structure their approaches to align with the realities of the widows' coping strategies and social capitals they utilise to respond to life challenges. Overall, this books gives insight to how widows demonstrate their agency in very patriarchal society.