Socio-economic Factors associated with Gender Gaps in politics in the Southern Senatorial District of Taraba State

The domination of women by men in political positions and offices underminesthe tenets of democracy by posing a serious threat to the assertion and belief ofinclusivity of all genders. This paper aims to examine factors associated with thegender gap in politics in the Southern Senatorial district of Taraba state. The paperutilized a sequential mixed-method, descriptive cross-sectional survey researchdesign. The sample size was 384 out of 660,220 men and women of voting age. Thestudy respondents were made up of electoral officers, party officials, and partymembers. A validated structured questionnaire and key informant interview (KII)were used for data collection. Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics ofmean and standard deviation, and thematic analysis of KII, and the mean scorewas set at 2.50. The study's findings revealed that socio-cultural factors, religionmean value (4.41), culture, customs, norms, and traditions (4.39), patriarchal partystructure (3.75), electoral violence and threat (3.83), and lack of women's interests(4.41) are responsible for gender gaps in politics. The researcher recommends thatthe government should make a law that certain elective positions be reservedexclusively for women at all levels, be it federal, state, and local government areas.