Joseph, Rudigi Rukema.Oyadiran, Kehinde Olamipo.2025-11-152025-11-1520252025https://hdl.handle.net/10413/24086Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected women’s livelihoods in different parts of Nigeria and has hit pre-existing gender inequalities and weaknesses. This research sought to assess the economic barriers that Nigerian women have faced after the pandemic, pre-existing socio- economic factors that rendered them severely affected, and how the women are coping from the disaster and examples of resilience. The study also makes recommendations to help policymakers and other stakeholders enhance women’s livelihood after COVID-19 pandemic. The study adopted a qualitative method, interviewing 60 economically active women in the South-West of Nigeria using semi-structured interview guides’ 30 on the formal and 30 from the informal sector. Data analysis was done using thematic analysis as guided by an integrated feminist theoretical framework that leveraged feminist political ecology, feminist intersectionality, and social role theory. The study has shown a significant disparity in the effect of the pandemic on women’s means of livelihood between the formal and informal sectors. Whereas the formal sector units such as industries led to layoffs and pay deductions, women were cushioned by various labour laws and unemployment benefits to some extent. In contrast, the informal sector, which encompasses activities like trading and small businesses, took a big hit from the governments’ closures and national boundaries' influence on supply chains. Besides, the report has also brought up the weaknesses in government facilitation such as accessibility, transparency, and reach of the programs like COVID-19 Cash Transfer Project and Survival Fund programs, which have been mainly inaccessible by the most underprivileged women. Nevertheless, Nigerian women were resilient in the face of these adversities, as evidenced by their use of social capital and community support networks, such as informal credit schemes and savings groups. Their efforts were still inadequate, however, because empowerment is constrained by a number of structural factors. Few women have legal rights to their husband’s property or access to a bank credit, and those who do are burdened with increased responsibility for house management. Based on its findings, the study concludes that women’s livelihoods in both the formal and informal economies must be prioritized, and recast. Actions to be taken are enhanced labour protections and social safety nets, increased informal sector, women’s taxpayers’ assistance and access to aid and resources, arbitraging and formalizing community-based strategies of empowerment, amending legal regimes and evolving capacity-building efforts to resolve structural barriers, as well as acknowledging and addressing the significantly increased care burdens.enCC0 1.0 Universalhttp://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/Women--Post Covid-19--Nigeria.Women--Livelihoods--Nigeria.Gender--Nigeria.Thesis