THE ROLE OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN MINIMIZING SEXUAL AND GENDER INEQUALITY

Abstract

Gender is a socio-cultural construct that frequently results in sex disparities in terms of the socially and culturally prescribed roles of men and women. In Nigeria households provide resources to son and daughter based on gender, certain sexes are marginalized and excluded from the mainstream programs and this results to discrimination. In oder to achieve gender equality social workers various roles to play, some of these roles includes; collaboration, advocacy, awareness and educating the people in the society. To this end, the study examines the roles of social workers in minimizing sexual and gender inequality. The study employed the review of literature on the concept of sexual and gender inequality and other works so as to understand the roles of social workers in minimizing sexual and gender inequality. The work made use of questionaires in collecting data from the study area. The sample size of this study consisted of 400 adults randomly selected from Evbuotubu, Egor and Uselu 1, in Egor local government, Benin city, Edo state, Nigeria. The findings from this research work is that; gender inequality is primarily caused by cultural beliefs and stereotypes, discriminatory laws and policies are major contributors to sexual and gender inequality, gender inequality hinders societal progress and development, gender-based violence is a consequence of sexual and gender inequalit, cultural and religious practices often reinforce sexual and gender Inequality and gender-based violence is a widespread manifestation of sexual and gender Inequality. The researcher recommends that policy makers or legislators and other stakeholders in government should make provision for better social welfare policy and programmes, and economic succor. Also social workers should be included in the mainstream of decision making body to help in the formulation and implementation of favourable policies and programmes to address the issue of poverty, discriminatory laws, gender stereotypes and inadequate educational attainment and other precipitating factors causing sexual and gender Inequality.