www.ccsenet.org/res Review of European Studies Vol. 4, No. 2; June 2012 ISSN 1918-7173 E-ISSN 1918-7181 138 Women Empowerment for a Holistic Development in Nigeria Chika Euphemia Asogwa Department of Mass Communication, Kogi State University Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria Tel: 234-8-130-047-065 E-mail: euchika@yahoo.com Received: January 16, 2012 Accepted: February 20, 2012 Published: June 1, 2012 doi:10.5539/res.v4n2p138 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/res.v4n2p138 Abstract Women empowerment as a concept has been related to development, democracy and all kinds of social wellbeing. Nigeria like most African countries is a patriarchal society, where men holds sway and lays down the rules. This paper affirms the need for women empowerment for a holistic development in Nigeria. The paper took off identifying the duality and complementarity in nature .The paper reveals the origin of creation of both man and woman which by pronouncement of the creator, God, was essentially on the basis of complementing each other, which means that the man and woman supposed to be seen as equal. Apart from the theory and counter theory of gender as elaborated in the paper, the physical differences between the masculine and feminine gender, the paper highlights the activities of the famous feminist radical activists of the early 60’s and their ideologies. The various struggles for liberation of the feminine gender from the masculine domination are discussed. This paper compares the Nigerian woman of pre-colonial era and the present day Nigerian woman in franchise, financial responsibility etc. A figurative evaluation and analysis of the rights and privileges enjoyed by the Nigerian woman in the early post colonial era up to the present day situation is also mentioned. Finally, this paper emphasized the role of the media in women empowerment for a holistic development in Nigeria. In its role in empowerment the media has a hegemonic function and it is in addition seen as an agent of socialization. Keywords: Nigeria, Women empowerment, Development, Complementarity, Media 1. Introduction 1.1 Duality and complementarity in nature Mother nature perchance, is a symphony of interaction and at times, of a blending of polar opposites. Day and night intermingle on the twighlight of dawn and dusk, light and darkness alternate, cold and heat blend in a wide range of different degrees, round and round, rolls the different seasons fusing into one another and bedecking the year with variety of gaiety. It would not be too far from the truth then, to postulate that Mother Nature survives on a complementary orchestration of different and diversified units in its progression. I feel that a philosophic gleaning of such interactivity in nature finds a gleaming expression in the Hegelian dialectics. In his analysis of ideological, historical and philosophical progression, Frederick Hegel postulated the famous Hegelian dialectics. Though he never used the terms himself, Hegel’s dialectics is often simply surmised in the triadic interaction of the thesis in conflictual reaction to the antithesis, birthing an inevitable synthesis. Hegel conceived the whole of nature as a “continual process of becoming… All things contain contradictory sides or aspects, whose tension or conflict is the driving force of change and eventually transforms or dissolves them.” For Hegel, the real is the absolute, this absolute he conceives as a ‘dynamic process,’ as ‘an organism of multiple parts’ but however, ‘unified in a complex system’(Hegel, 1994:331). While not delving into the depths of the difference demarcating the so termed idealist dialectics in Hegel and material dialectics of Marx, a common denominator in both schools is the presence of an obviously conflictual or subtly complementary interaction of composite opposites. The example of dialectics is by no means relegated to the philosophic parlance. Such a theorem of complementarily is overt in the progression of modern day media. One of the most insightful scholar of contemporary communication and its cultural impact Marshal McLuhan, in his designation of the part of modern media after a most astute delineation of the hot and cold media, proposed