This paper examines the impact of the 2000 Sharia law resurgence in northern Nigeria on women’s educational attainment and labour market outcomes. Using data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (2003-2024) and a difference-in-differences approach, I estimate the effect of the reform on women exposed during school age. With significant declines in the years of schooling and secondary school completion in treated states, women in the treated group are significantly more likely to stop at primary school completion and significantly less likely to reach or complete secondary school in the post-reform period; thus, diminishing their earning capacity and opportunities for gainful or formal employment. Event study tests for men and placebo reveal null effects for secondary education, thus supporting the identification strategy. My findings are consistent with a framework in which formal legal change interacts with restrictive social norms to reduce household investment in girls’ education, with increases in early marriage and fertility as likely mediating channels. This indicates that religious legal reforms can generate heterogeneous and unintended consequences for gender equity. While such laws may reflect specific cultural objectives, their implementation in a federal system should be accompanied by complementary policies that protect girls’ schooling and expand pathways to higher-productivity employment. Without such measures, legal reforms risk reinforcing a low-education, low-return equilibrium that constrains women’s empowerment and long-run development.
Litigant Rights Reform on Women’s Empowerment
Evidence from Nigeria
- Oluwabunmi Adejumo