A Critical Examination of Gender and Social Reproduction in the Nigerian Informal Economy

Social reproduction, encompassing the work of producing and sustaining human life and labour power, is disproportionately performed by women in Nigeria's informal economy through unpaid and low-paid labour, yet it remains economically invisible and theoretically underexplored in Nigerian scholarship. This study conducts a critical examination of gender and social reproduction in the Nigerian informal economy, drawing on feminist social reproduction theory and empirical research across urban informal economies in Lagos, Kano, and Port Harcourt. A critical feminist materialist paradigm underpins a multi-method design employing time-use surveys with 280 informal economy workers (by gender), 50 in-depth interviews with women traders, domestic workers, and food vendors, and institutional analysis of informal economy policy frameworks. Social reproduction theory, feminist economics, and critical political economy guided analysis. Findings demonstrate that the Nigerian informal economy depends structurally on women's unremunerated reproductive labour, including meal provision, childcare during trading hours, household maintenance, and community care networks, that subsidises the cost of informal labour reproduction but is counted neither in national accounts nor in informal sector economic analysis. Social protection exclusion amplifies women's reproductive burden during economic shocks. The study develops an original Social Reproduction Analysis of Nigerian Informality (SRANI) framework that makes women's reproductive contributions economically visible and provides a basis for informal economy policy reform. Keywords: social reproduction, informal economy, Nigeria, feminist economics, gender