Abstract:
Governments introduce certain rural development programmes to improve the living standard of women in the rural areas. This is on the belief that the rural areas would be better developed if the economic and social status of women are improved since this group constitutes the majority of the rural population. What is evident is that most often, the rural women fail to participate in the development programmes designed for them. The introduction, failure and replacement of Operation Feed the Nation, Better Life Programme, Family Support Programme, Family Economic Advancement Programme etc are traceable to lack of participation by the beneficiaries (women). So the work was motivated by lack of effective participation of rural women in programme activities in Nigeria. The research work investigated the participation of women so as to discover the factors that militate against effective participation and thereafter, make good recommendations for improvement. Based on the findings of the research, the researcher recommended that women should be encouraged to organize themselves in groups and association since these can convince or compel members to be active partakers in programme activities. Too, governments should increase capital allocations for programmes, establish an effective framework to check corruption and finally, involve rural women sufficiently in the planning and implementation processes of development programmes
