Nigeria's detachment from the apron's strings of the British government and her gallant entry into independence on October I" 1960 has much been celebrated. The
aftermath of this epoch making event has no doubt birthed several reforms, policies and programmes aimed at transforming the lives of the citizenry. It is worrisome
however that, nearly fifty (50) years after, th ere seem not to be any remarkable progress and desired transformations in view especially for the rural women who
constitute a greater proportion of the population. Hunger, poverty, disease, ignorance and gender violence constitute the lot of these women. Against this backdrop, this paper appraises the plight of Nigeria's rural women, their-strategic roles in development and the militating factors impeding their economic empowerment from independence till date. It examines a few post-independence programmes targeted at uplifting women and why remarkable progress has not been achieved. The theoretical perspective adopted for article is the political economy theory, while data from secondary sources mainly, content analysis was utilized. The paper concludes with suggestions on urgent pragmatic steps and lessons for the way forward
