Nigeria has a high incidence of poverty among women and needs to create more employment to tackle the
scourge. While women increased their access to non-agricultural employment, their share of employment has
remained relatively constant. This paper examines the constraints to full employment and decent work for women.
Women are more affected by the contraction of formal employment and decent work, increase in non-typical work
which often feature general precariousness, poor payments, and non- coverage by labour legislation or social
protection. Women face several constraints in the labour market which are direct results of women’s
disadvantage in education; labour market mobility; relatively high involvement in part-time; concentration in
employment where wages are down; and direct discrimination Access to decent work constitutes a major cause of
poverty among women. An integrated approach to growth and development, focused on gender-responsive
employment promotion and economic and social development is needed.