Feminization and Image of Librarianship in Academic Environment: The Nigerian Perspective (Published)
The objective of the study is to examine the effect of feminization of librarianship on the professional image of the profession in Nigeria.Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. Questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collection. Due to the COVID-19 that was ravaging the globe at the time of the study, the questionnaire was administered online via an online survey service, www.surveycrest.com. The data generated were analyzed using SPSS Version 21 and presented in Tables.It was found that Nigerian women librarians are adequately prepared for leadership positions in librarianship, though lack of creativity, low level of confidence, and inability to coordinate accounted for low level of women librarians in leadership positions in librarianship. The finding also revealed that feminization of librarianship in Nigeria determined the low image of the profession. Also, the study showed that continuous feminization of librarianship may consequently decrease the image of librarianship. The study is novel as it investigated how feminization affects the professional image of librarianship in Nigeria. Librarians from only few selected public university libraries in South-west, Nigeria were used for the study. This could limit the generalization of the opinions gathered by the study. Perceiving librarianship as ‘women’s profession’ may erode the image and prestige the profession once had when the field was dominated by men. Feminizing librarianship may reduce the image of the profession
Keywords: Academic Libraries, Gender, Librarians, feminization, image of librarianship, librarianship