Analytical Investigation of the Feminisation of Poverty Among Female-Headed Households in South West Nigeria

The feminisation of poverty thesis posits that women constitute a disproportionate share of the world's poor and that female-headed households face structural disadvantages compounding poverty risk. This study analytically investigates whether and how feminisation of poverty manifests among female-headed households in Ogun and Osun States, South West Nigeria, filling a gap in locally validated evidence. A comparative analytical design was employed, using Living Standards Measurement Survey secondary data supplemented with primary survey data collected from 360 households, equally divided between female-headed and male-headed households matched on community location and household size. Multiple dimensions of poverty were measured using the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Logistic regression analysis identified predictors of poverty status within and between household headship categories. Results confirm that female-headed households were 2.3 times more likely to fall below the multidimensional poverty threshold than male-headed households of equivalent size. Education, access to formal credit, and land tenure security were the three variables most strongly mediating the headship-poverty relationship. Female-headed households dependent on informal trading income demonstrated higher income volatility and lower asset accumulation than those with formal employment, creating poverty trap dynamics not captured by income-based measures alone. Widowed heads faced more acute poverty than divorced or never-married heads, suggesting that bereavement-related asset loss is a distinct feminisation mechanism. The study contributes analytical evidence for the multidimensional feminisation thesis in the Nigerian context. Keywords: feminisation of poverty, female-headed households, South West Nigeria, multidimensional poverty, gender.