In spite of being disadvantaged by gender, a number of Nigerian women, particularly from the Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups, have made their marks in different fields. Nevertheless, the profile of the Nigerian woman shows her continuing disadvantaged position in comparison to her male counterpart. A majority of them are afflicted by poverty, the causes of which could be traced to gender discrimination. One major cause of poverty among women is their low access to credit and income-earning opportunities, as well as their marginalisation from major economic activities. Referring to this economic disempowerment of Nigerian women, Okoye (2000:209) shows how, in comparison to men, women are worse hit as a result of their very limited involvement in economic activities in relation to their male counterparts.

Women are equally economically disadvantaged and impoverished in terms of ownership of the means of production such as land. In all but a handful of ethnic groups in the country, tradition has decreed that the Nigerian woman cannot own or inherit land. Writing about this unfortunate situation, Nwankwo (2001: 1) explains, “Traditionally, women do not own land and therefore cannot inherit land either from their fathers or husbands.”

The Nigerian woman’s economic powerlessness is also reflected in her subordination not only to her husband but also to her own male children. If she outlives her husband, she is debarred by culture and tradition from assuming the headship of the family and has no right to administer the estate of her late husband, especially where there is an Okpala or first-born son (among the Igbo). Here, “A woman is not allowed to inherit her husband’s estate. Instead, she is inherited along with the estate by another male in the family… Customary law has denied the female sex every right of inheritance, her contribution to the acquisition of the estate notwithstanding”, Nwankwo (2001:1,4). Most Nigerian women are also afflicted with illiteracy, as poverty and illiteracy often go together. Globally, most illiterate women are poor rural dwellers and millions of such women are living in abject poverty all over the developing world, most of them in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The worst hit is Africa where by the last decade of the twentieth century, two out of three adult rural women were illiterate. The situation has not changed much. As Stromquist (1990) explains, the very high illiteracy rates among rural women in the developing countries is attributable to the very heavy arduous task which women perform to ensure family subsistence – a situation which places poor rural women in inescapable domestic servitude and allows them little or no time to acquire formal education. The fate of such women and even the fate of their daughters are described thus by Stromquist:

“The existence of intensive domestic work, coupled with conflictual family dynamics, renders literacy an unattainable dream for a large number of women and even a dream for some of their children, particularly their daughters who early in life tend to be assigned the same domestic roles their mothers perform”.

This situation is very much applicable to Nigerian women. The Nigerian woman is also characterised by low self-esteem because the society has continued to regard her as unimportant and inferior to her male counterpart. Right from the beginning of life, society prefers the boy child to the girl child. All through her growing-up years, the girl child is socialised to accept her subordinate position even when it is well known that Liberal Feminist Theory is correct in its argument that boys and girls are born with equivalent potentials that could be fully realised, given the proper and conducive environment. However, cultural practices often deny the girl child this type of environment through child-rearing practices that put her in a disadvantaged position. CIRDDOC (2001 :1) makes this point about the role of nurture:

“Gender refers to a system of roles and relationships between women and men that are determined not biologically but by the social, political and economic context. Gender can equally be seen as the process by which individuals who are born into biological categories of male and female become the social categories of men and women through the acquisition of locally defined attributes of masculinity and femininity .. beyond biological differences, all other differences between men and women are socially constructed and have no logical relationships with their biological compositions”.

From this disadvantaged beginning, the Nigerian girl child’s journey into adult life becomes one long battle against harmful traditional and cultural practices that threaten her life and put her down generally. In some parts of Nigeria, harmful traditional practices that dehumanize women still include:

1. Female genital mutilation to control her sexuality.

2.Disproportionate emphasis on marriage as the only acceptable status for a woman. This undue emphasis, particularly in Igbo society, puts enormous psychological pressure on women. From an early age, a woman begins to worry about ‘finding a husband’, a ‘task’ she is constantly told is a do-or-die affair because ‘men are scarce’. Consequently, not being married becomes a stigma which most women become desperate to escape from as they get older. Indeed, so constraining is society’s emphasis on marriage for the female gender, that an unmarried mother, a divorcee or spinster is a monstrosity (Ojiakor, 1997:219).

3. Child marriage – a reflection of society’s emphasis on the ‘virtue of virginity for women at marriage – in which little girls are married off to men who most times are old enough to be their fathers. The disparity in age ensures that the wife has little or no power of decision-making in the marriage.
4. Polygamy which subjects women to harrowing psychological trauma often brings out the worst in their character, in the face of the vicious competition that characterises most polygamous households.
5. All manner of violence comprising battery and assault of women by husbands and other male partners: sexual violence including rape even by husbands. Wife beating is accepted by Nigerian culture as a legitimate instrument of authority by a husband over his wife. Citing Chukukere (1992), Ojiakor situates this dehumanisation of women within the overall power relationships in marriage:

“Indeed, no matter the level of education or enlightenment, relation between husband and wife is a power-based one, where the woman expects orders and gives in return total obedience. The man’s prerogative to command his wife include (sic) beating her physically and denying her sexual rights”.

6.Dehumanising widowhood practices In the event of a woman outliving her husband. “These include the physical and emotional torture which a woman is subjected to, ranging from the violent shaving of her hair to making her drink the water used to bathe the corpse of her husband [to prove she has no hand in his death]” (CIRDDOC, 2002:8).

In the area of politics, the plight of Nigerian women is equally pathetic. Although women make up at least half the electorate in Nigeria, their presence in policy/decision-making positions is very low. Again, a number of factors militate against their effective participation in democratic politics. These factors, many of which have their roots in women’s subordinate position in society, include: illiteracy, poverty, low self-esteem, ignorance, lack of confidence in other women, violent and non-conducive political environment (money politics, intimidation and violence), cultural stereotypes, religious barriers, high registration fees (which most women cannot afford), harmful traditional practices etc.                          Above all, the chauvinistic tendencies of the male rulers of the land have over the years denied women any meaningful participation in politics. For instance, all through the years when Nigeria was under military rule and people in positions of political power were appointed rather than elected, not a single woman was appointed as governor of the many states in the country or a member of the highest policy-making body (the Armed Forces Ruling Council). What Mba (1982:304) said several years ago about the political marginalisation of Nigerian women, is still very much applicable:

“Nigerian women must come to recognise that politics determines the allocation of all resources in the society, and that their alienation from politics means that their special interest will continue to be neglected”.

Ami resides in Port Harcourt

Aggo Patience Ami