GENDER EXPLOITATION AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN AFRICA: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Labour is prone and opened to numerous exploitations in industrial relations between employees who sell their labour power as a means of survival on one hand, to employers who use their labour power to create surplus value for themselves on the other hand. The exploitation has further created unequal industrial relations between men and women but with the female gender position at a more subservient position often opened to both fellow employees' exploitation on one hand and the employers' exploitation on the other hand. The paper focused on types of exploitation women's suffered, factors influencing gender-based exploitation, and the consequences of this exploitation on women advancement in the formal sector. The study adopted a Marxist Feminist perspective. The paper is a documentary review of literature and statistical data analysis on gender exploitation. The paper concludes that gender exploitation in industrial relations cannot easily be reduced to the barest minimum level until women are given equal access to employment opportunities; women should establish and head companies; more women should be included as board members of both private and public organizations and should be given specialized courts to speedily handle issues of gender exploitation in industrial relations. It also calls for a general reorientation of women to rise against issues of all forms of exploitation.