A Gender Analysis of Youths’ Aspirations and Resilience in the COVID-19 era in Nigeria

Abstract

This article examined young men and women’s expressions of life aspirations and resilience strategies during covid-era. It further explored how gendering norms and practices of masculinity and femininity play a role in their definitions of success and resilience as they face constraints and opportunities presented by covid-19. The study utilised mixed method research comprising a cross sectional survey and ethnographic methods among 1659 Nigerian youth aged 15 years and to 35 years. The study highlighted the mutually reinforcing influences of a social disruption on youth’s self-understanding and normative gendered practices. Definitions of what constitutes success during a socially disruptive pandemic era and how young people frame aspirations provide a lens to understanding resilience. This study sheds light to how the youths’ experiences of gendering norms of masculinity and femininity create differentiated conditions on one hand and shape resilience on the other. Based on the findings, this article recommends a consideration of multiple adaptive systems for youth resilience in advocacy and programmatic interventions following disruptive conditions. Policies, programmes, and youth-centric structures aimed at strengthening resilience should factor internal and external factors which promote or hinder resilience such as social networks and gendered social norms.