PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER ON EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN IN ENUGU EAST L.G.A, ENUGU STATE NIGERIA

This study is based on the influence of gender on employment opportunities for women (A study of Enugu East Local Government Area). The survey research design was adopted and a sample size of 400 (four hundred ) was got using Taro Yamane formula out of the population of a total of (367,958) residents. 400 questionnaires were administered to the respondents and 330 was returned, which was used for the data.  The data for the study was gathered using a questionnaire. An in-depth interview was conducted as the qualitative instrument. Analysis was made through the latest version of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS}, which is a well known software for the statistically analysis of data, so that effective conclusion can be drawn and Chi square was used to test the Hypotheses. Simple random sampling technique was adopted as the sampling technique for the study.  From the study, one could summarize more evidently that there are several patterns of gender discrimination based on employment opportunities for women in Enugu East. It was discovered that there are many factors responsible for gender discrimination on employment opportunities for women in Enugu East; more so, the study reveals that there are consequences for gender discrimination on employment opportunities of women in Enugu East. Finally gender discrimination on employment opportunities for women can be reduced in so many ways. The study recommends that Government should ensure that we have more female representatives at the top in the private and public sectors by eliminating barriers against women working in certain sectors to increase output, and most importantly government and the society at large should create full and decent productive employment opportunities for women and access to finance, as well as provision of social protection. Finally the researcher suggested other topics for further research.