The paper examined the issue of literacy as a potent tool for empowering women in the
Nigerian communities. The paper was premised on the fact that when women are literate, they
will be more active in their various communities. Their voices will be heard as opposed to
their faces being seeing and this will instill in them the confidence to make progress in this
advancing world. The study made use of descriptive survey design. The population for the
study consisted of all the women in Ibadan North Local Government while 211 women were
randomly selected as samples for the study. A self designed questionnaire of 20 items was
designed to elicit responses from the subjects of the study on their views on literacy, good
living and empowerment. The data collected were subjected to statistical test at 0.05 level of
significance. The study discovered that literacy is a weapon for fighting poverty, diseases, and
ignorance and when all these are fought, an average woman becomes empowered to
participate actively in issues of development in her community. The study therefore
recommended among others that women should show interest in literacy as where there is a
will, there is a way and the government at all levels should make efforts to fund literacy
programmes and encourage women to take active part in literacy programme.