Agency, Structure, and Gender in Business Education Participation in North West Nigeria: A Feminist Political Economy Analysis

This study conducted a feminist political economy analysis of the interplay between human agency, structural constraints, and gender in Business Education participation in North West Nigeria. Despite constitutional guarantees of equal educational access, female participation in Business Education programmes in the North West remains significantly below the national average, with structural, cultural, and economic barriers intersecting to produce persistent gender exclusion. This study addresses a critical theoretical and empirical gap by applying feminist political economy to understand how macro-structural forces and individual agency interact to shape gendered educational participation in this context. Drawing on the Feminist Political Economy Framework, Bourdieu Theory of Practice, and the Capability Approach, a critical ethnographic methodology was employed over eighteen months across Kano, Sokoto, and Kebbi States. Data were generated through 80 in-depth interviews with female and male students, parents, teachers, educational administrators, and community leaders; 12 focus group discussions; participant observation in institutional and community settings; and analysis of enrollment trend data. Reflexive thematic analysis and feminist discourse analysis were employed. Findings reveal that patriarchal household structures, brideprice economics, geographic distance, and religious conservatism function as layered structural barriers, while female students who participated demonstrated remarkable agentive navigational strategies including family alliance-building and strategic enrollment timing. The study makes an original theoretical contribution by advancing a Contextual Agency-Structure Model for Gender in African Education and recommends targeted structural interventions including community engagement programmes and female scholarship funds. Keywords: feminist political economy, gender, Business Education participation, North West Nigeria, agency and structure