Religious Women Empowerment Using the Shine Theory in the Tiv Catholic Women Organizations’ Incessant Leadership Struggle, Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover and classify the non-Christian politicking problems for leadership in the Tiv Catholic Women Organistion (CWO) of Nigeria using the Shine Theory. The theory originates from women’s groups for empowering women in politics, businesses, and social situations and so, we thought it plausible to empower religious women to be firm on religious ethos. We used a qualitative methodology, in-depth individual interviews of 42 women, present/past presidents, and ordinary members of the organisation in Makurdi, Gboko, and Katsina-Ala dioceses in Benue state. Administering four semistructured individual interview questions and two structured multiple-choice questions. Our findings surprised us as we thought that the leadership struggle in Tiv CWO was fundamentally husband and priest, male-related, manipulation, and interferences. However, the women report that they are mostly responsible for what is happening in their mist. We classify the non-Christian leadership fighting in the organisation into seven categories: spiritual, psychological, political, business, social, family, and cultural. This theory applies to religious groups as well; Biblical women like Mary the Mother of Jesus and Elizabeth the Mother of John the Baptist; Ruth and Naomi, and many others, Biblical heroines, practiced the theory in their lives. Hence, the Tiv CWO should develop a systematic spiritualitybased on the study of Biblical women as their models since the organisation does not have a clear spirituality. This modest study fills some of the gaps in the theory since there is little on it from the religious perspective. However, more studies need to be conducted to firmly establish a religious context and further development of the Shine Theory for women’s empowerment.