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Cultures and gender roles,

Gender equity,

Women in leadership position,

Women empowerment,

Gender equity,

Women empowerment: education,

Women and HIV/AIDs,

All of the issues listed above will be viewed in terms of the various ethnic groups in Nigeria and more over what obtains at present compared to the past. The data would be collated and a comparative analysis would be made.

ETHNICITY IN NIGERIA

To begin with, ethnicity1 may be defined as “the employment or mobilization of ethnic identity and difference to gain advantage in situations of competition, conflict or cooperation” (Osaghae 1995:11). This definition is preferred because it identifies two issues that are central to discussions on ethnicity. The first is that ethnicity is neither natural nor accidental, but is the product of a conscious effort by social actors. The second is that ethnicity is not only manifest in conflictive or competitive relations but also in the contexts of cooperation. A corollary to the second point is that ethnic conflict manifests itself in various forms, including voting, community service and violence. Thus, it need not always have negative consequences. Ethnicity also encompasses the behaviour of ethnic groups. Ethnic groups are groups with ascribed membership, usually but not always based on claims or myths of common history, ancestry, language, race, religion, culture and territory. While all these variables need not be present before a group is so defined, the important thing is that such a group is classified or categorised as having a common identity that distinguishes it from others. It is this classification by powerful agencies such as the state, religious institutions and the intelligentsia such as local ethnic historians that objectifies the ethnic group, often setting in motion processes of self-identification or affirmation and recognition by others. Thus, ethnicity is not so much a matter of ‘shared traits or cultural commonalities’, but the result of the interplay between external categorization and self-identification (Brubaker, Loveman and Stamatov 2004:31-32).

Most analysts agree on the basic constitutive elements of ethnic groups but disagree on how and why they were formed, why ethnicity occurs, why it occasionally results in violent conflicts and what should be done to prevent its perverse manifestations.. As Ake (2000) and Mustapha (2000) have correctly argued these distinctions have been overemphasized as use of one does not necessarily preclude the other. Most scholars combine more than one perspective in their analyses. Essentialism, the earliest of the four approaches, arose from cultural cartographies and greatly influenced modernization theorists whose positions became the points of departure of the other three approaches. The following sections examine the interplay between the ethnicity and gender issues

TALCOTT PARSONS’ VIEWS OF GENDER ROLES

Working in the United States, Talcott Parsons developed a model of the nuclear family in 1955. (At that place and time, the nuclear family was considered to be the prevalent family structure.) It compared a strictly traditional view of gender roles (from an industrial-age American perspective) to a more liberal view.

Parsons believed that the feminine role was an expressive one, whereas the masculine role, in his view, was instrumental. He believed that expressive activities of the woman fulfill ‘internal’ functions, for example to strengthen the ties between members of the family. The man, on the other hand, performed the ‘external’ functions of a family, such as providing monetary support.

The Parsons model was used to contrast and illustrate extreme positions on gender roles. Model A describes total separation of male and female roles, while Model B describes the complete dissolution of barriers between gender roles.(The examples are based on the context of the culture and infrastructure of the United States but I have simulated it to that of Nigeria)

Model A – Total role segregation

Model B – Total disintegration of roles

Education

Gender-specific education; high professional qualification is important only for the man

Co-educative schools, same content of classes for girls and boys, same qualification for men and women.

Profession

The workplace is not the primary area of women; career and professional advancement is deemed unimportant for women

For women, career is just as important as for men; Therefore equal professional opportunities for men and women are necessary.

Housework

Housekeeping and child care are the primary functions of the woman; participation of the man in these functions is only partially wanted.

All housework is done by both parties to the marriage in equal shares.

Decision making

In case of conflict, man has the last say, for example in choosing the place to live, choice of school for children, buying decisions

Neither partner dominates; solutions do not always follow the principle of finding a concerted decision; status quo is maintained if disagreement occurs.

Child care and education

Woman takes care of the largest part of these functions; she educates children and cares for them in every way

Man and woman share these functions equally.

Gender roles can influence all kinds of behavior, such as choice of clothing, choice of work and personal relationships; E.g., parental status and traditional belief in Nigeria.

GENDER ROLES AND SOCIALIZATION

The process through which the individual learns and accepts roles is called socialization. Socialization works by encouraging wanted and discouraging unwanted behavior. These sanctions by agencies of socialization such as the tradition, religion, family, schools, and the communication medium make it clear to the child what behavioral norms the child is expected to follow. The examples of the child’s parents, siblings and teachers are typically followed. Mostly, accepted behaviour is not produced by outright reforming coercion from an accepted social system. In some other cases, various forms of coercion have been used to acquire a desired response or function.

In majority of the traditional and developmental social systems, an individual has a choice to what should he or she extent as a conformed representative of a socialization process. In this voluntary process, the consequences can be beneficial or malfunctional, minor or severe for every case by a behavior’s socialization influence forming gender roles or expectations institutionalizing gender differences. Typical encouragements and expectations of gender role behavior are not as a powerful difference and reforming social trait to a century ago. Such developments and traditional refineries are still a socialization process to and within family values, peer pressures, at the employment centers and in every social system communication medium.

Still, once someone has accepted certain gender roles and gender differences as an expected socialized behavioral norms, these behavior traits become part of the individual’s responsibilities not influential roles in gender relationships on a personal and social levels to the individual’s own socializing role or self (identity). Sanctions to unwanted behavior and role conflict can be stressful.

CHANGING ROLES

“

Girls can wear jeans

And cut their hair short

Wear shirts and boots

‘Cause it’s okay to be a boy

But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading

‘Cause you think that being a girl is degrading

But secretly you’d love to know what it’s like

Wouldn’t you

What it feels like for a girl

”

Source: The Cement Garden which appears in the Madonna song, “What It Feels Like for a Girl”

A person’s gender role is composed of several elements and can be expressed through clothing, behaviour, choice of work, personal relationships and other factors. These elements are not concrete and have evolved through time (for example women’s trousers).

Gender roles were traditionally divided into strictly feminine and masculine gender roles, though these roles have diversified today into many different acceptable male or female gender roles. However, gender role norms for women and men can vary significantly from one country or culture to another, even within a country or culture. People express their gender role somewhat uniquely. Gender role can vary according to the social group to which a person belongs or the subculture with which he or she identifies cultural identity. Historically, for example, eunuchs had a different gender role because their biology was changed.

GENDER ROLES AND FEMINISM

Most feminists argue that traditional gender roles are oppressive for women. They believe that the female gender role was constructed as an opposite to an ideal male role, and helps to perpetuate patriarchy. For approximately the last 100 years women have been fighting for the same rights as men (especially in the 1960s with second-wave feminism and radical feminism) and were able to make changes to the traditionally accepted feminine gender role. However, most feminists today say there is still work to be done. Numerous studies and statistics show that even though the situation for women has improved during the last century, discrimination is still widespread: Women earn a smaller percentage of aggregate income than men, occupy lower-ranking job positions than men and do most of the housekeeping work[citation needed]. Some women, such as the editors of the Independent Women’s Forum, dispute this claim. They argue that women actually earn 98 cents on the dollar when factors such as age, education, and experience are taken into account. However, feminists believe these factors are not independent of gender. In fact, gender socialization informs the kind and length of education women receive, as well as the age at which women enter the workplace and the time spent working. Opponents counter that, regardless of what forces influence these factors, the evidence of wide-spread discrimination against working women is quite weak.