1ADEROUNMU Gbolahan Ayodeji, 2BABARINDE, Solomon Adejare & 3IGBADUMHE Abaye
1Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State
2 & 3 Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
Correspondence email address: [email protected]
Abstract
The study examined the effect of integrating e-commerce on the dimensions of social empowerment, gender equality and societal roles by women entrepreneurs in Ogun State, Nigeria. Business transactions today have increasingly become digitized and with a high growth rate, e-commerce provides new avenues for women that have easily surmounted traditional socio-cultural barriers and afford them greater access to markets and networks. It epitomizes how e-commerce by employing Empowerment Theory, Feminist Theory, and TAM in analysis, increases financial independence and capability for decision-making among women, hence challenging rigid gender roles. Among the many challenges that impede e-commerce from realizing its full potential to advocate for gender equality, the study highlighted poor technological infrastructures and a lack of digital literacy, especially in rural areas. While confirmatory results from the PLS-SEM modelling and quantitative analysis indicate a high influence of e-commerce integration on social empowerment, gender equality, and transformation of socially assigned roles, findings of the study call for focused policy interventions in overcoming the digital divide to ensure women empowerment in the productive use of the digital economy. The study is therefore useful in enlightening policy and other stakeholders who may have an interest in attaining inclusive digitized transformation and economic development in Nigeria.
Keywords: E-commerce integration, social empowerment, Gender equality, societal roles, Women Entrepreneurs