THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT OF A COMMUNITY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO WARRI NORTH CAMPAIGN FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE GIRL CHILD

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THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE EDUCATIONAL ADVANCEMENT OF A COMMUNITY: AN INVESTIGATION INTO WARRI NORTH CAMPAIGN FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE GIRL CHILD

ABSTRACT

This paper has embarked on a major discussion of the historical role and contribution of the Nigerian women in education and to the various sectors of the economy, the requirements for advancement and constraints to greater developments, the paper points out the detrimental effects which colonialism have had on the social, political, cultural and economic status of the Nigerian women, The paper also highlights the fact that in spite of the overwhelming restrictions on the Nigerian women, they have tremendous achievements in different parts of the country in participating so remarkably in various fields of developments particularly in agriculture and in business. The paper made mention of the effects which the Better Life and Family Support Programmes had on the contribution of women to national development. It also recognizes the fact that women have considerable potential more than the role they are presently playing in National development. It made some recommendations which can help to tap their (women) resources in order to ensure their optimal performance in national development

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Education is one of the most important means of empowering human beings with the knowledge, skills and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in the development of a nation. The discriminatory practice in education which favored the male over the female was very unprogressive yet the government could not do anything to either stop or reverse it (Kema, 2003). The colonial government laid a very bad foundation for education generally and women‟s education in particular. It is on record that in Nigeria, the colonial government initially did not show any interest in educational development at all. The early efforts were made by the Christian missionaries who came to evangelize to the people. “It is an investment in human capital” according to Amanchukwu, (2003). Formal education takes care of these attributes listed above. This is because education is a dynamic instrument of change geared towards national development. It is, therefore, important to everyone but it is especially significant for girls and women because an educated woman is an asset to her community; training a woman is training a nation.

Enaibe and Imonivwerha (2007) noted that women education is “the process of sensitizing the girl- child on the need to possess basic skills, knowledge, ability and attitude to make her fit positively, comfortably and productively into the society. Provision of sound, general education and vocational training for women will go a long way to improve their political power.

Women in the African society have always played second fiddle hence they have been excluded from numerous socio-political activities, including decision- making in the family and society. Moreover, they have been relegated to the background in almost all ramifications of human endeavour.

They are regarded as less intelligent than men and as weaker sex. As Chafetz (1979) observed:

The words used to describe the masculine role are quite positive: practical ‘logical ‘experimental brave ‘trustworthy’. The tone of the words used to describe ferminity is considerably different. Such terms as petty, fickle, frivolous, shallow’ and vain are negatively charged in the society.

The Nigerian Political setting right from its inception has exhibited positive support for male dominance over female because the men believe that women are not expected to carry out any outstanding role except those roles affiliated with domestic matters alone. This traditional belief that woman’s place is in the kitchen has, over the years, pushed the woman to the degrading, derogatory position in national affairs and had, in many ways , affected her ambitions and so her participation in political activities.

Women have seriously remained in the passive state with its degradation consequences to such an extent that they are not having much freedom that would have allowed them to favourably compete with men. In Nigeria, female participation in education and politics had been neglected. Seminars and workshops organized on women often focus on lack of education as a constraint to women contribution to national development.

The important roles that women play in nation building is currently receiving what could be described as “deserved attention”. Many women have taken bold steps in the three tiers of government to demonstrate that they are co-labourers in the building process of the nation. Some of them have contested with the male folk and won political positions. The funding and governance of laudable programmes like Better Life for Rural Women, Family Support Programme, and Family Economic Advancement Programme are testimonies to the increasing emphasis on the role of women in educational and political development.

Background Study

Women are at the heart of development as they control most of the non monetary economy (subsistence, agriculture, bearing children, domestic labour etc.) and play an important role in the monetary economy (trading, wage labour, employment, etc (Yawa, 1995). Everywhere in the world, women work both around the home and outside the home. The most topical issue in international developmental programme is women.

The woman as a person is an agent of reproduction of life itself. This places her in the position of the life blood of the entire humanity. She is the first teacher, the sustained and maintainer of the home, the peace maker, the symbol of beauty and major molder of the character of the child. She is a mother of the human race. As mothers and wives, women do exert considerable impact on the productivity of male workers. As workers in their own rights, they can conveniently be linked to the rejected stone in the Bible which has become the cornerstone of the house. By their sheer psychological, physiological and intellectual make up, they do perform more than mere complimentary roles in the production process (Jeminiwa, 1995).

Most of these contributions by women had not been recognized until recently when the United Nations declared the Decade for Women (1976-1985) making it mandatory on governments to focus on issue of women as an integral component of national development. In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women Consequently, subsequent conferences on women were held in Copenhagen, Denmark 1980, Nairobi in kenya 1985 and Benjing in China 1995 However, an international news magazines ‘Africa Today” reported in July 1995 that the full implementation of all the strategies and recommendations of the various conferences on women issues had still not been achieved and enthusiasm was wanning. According to the magazine, the UN itself reported that only six out of the 184 ambassadors to UN are women and only four out of the 32 UN specialized agencies and programmes are headed by women.

Coming home in Nigeria, the 1995 constitutional conference in Nigeria had only eight women out of a total of 369 delegates. Much of women’s work remains invisible, unremunerated and unrecognized. But women are now challenging the status quo. Mechanisms to right the so called “Cultures wrong” are being put in place. Women’s voices are now being heard clamoring for an improvement in their socio-economic status and for the recognition of their immense contributions to national development (Amah, 1995).

It is the purpose of this paper therefore to highlight the role of women particularly the Nigerian women in culture and national development.

THE ROLE OF NIGERIAN WOMEN IN CULTURE

The concept of culture has been defined in various ways. These various definitions range from its simplistic forms to its complex forms. Culture is being universally defined and understood as the totality of ways of life of a people or a society. Sociologists, anthropologists and historians have offered a variety of meanings of culture and the traits inherent in it. These and burial ceremony, ethics and of course including philosophy of life (CESSAC 1986).

Clyde (1951) opined that culture represents the distinctive way of life of a group of people. An American anthologist, Harrries (1971) defines cultures as abstraction that summaries the pattern ways in which the member of a population thinks, feel and behave. Asimalafe (1983) refused to accept Harries definition in its totality but rather defined culture as”the total ways of life of a people that help to think, promote, implement, shape and predict their destiny”

Looking at the common thing in all these various definitions, Onwuejeogwu (1994) sees culture as all material objects made by man ranging from stone implement to atomic energy; and all non-material things thought out and institutionalized by man ranging from values, norms to ideas like marriage, economy, politics, religion, music, drama dance and language. The material and non material forms according to him interact and interweave to form new complete forms. In the context of this paper”, culture is defined as all the historically created designed to living, explicit and implicit, rational, irrational and non-rational which exist at any given time as potential guides for the behaviour of man. (Olorunnipa 1992), Culture is learned and shared, culture is transmitted from generation to generation and in this process, culture is modified, renewed or dropped. It is both static and dynamic.

Culture varies widely with respect to the roles they assigned to different sexes. While one job may be regarded as a man’s job in one society, it may be regarded as women’s job is another. This division Is with the exception of child bearing. Child bearing is one constant factor that determines the division of labour in pre-industrial societies. Because of child-bearing, women are less mobile and therefore send to fill roles which they can perform closer to their houses such as house keeping, weaving, midwifery and processing of food.

In examining women in culture, there is the need to develop them so as to be able to keep pace with developments in the Nigerian socio-economic scene. Apart from the physical attractions, women are indispensable at home not only in the domestic work they do, but also in the taking care of the children. According to Oyesakin (1982) women perform certain functions that make for development they bear and take care of the children, they take care of the home and economically they are helping hands to man. For example in Yorubaland, women sell what the man produces and provide the rescue when he is in financial difficulty.

Denise (1971) describes the roles and duties of women in the family as wives, mothers and village politicians. He was of the opinion that women function in various capacities ranging from monarchs and warriors to-founders of nations states. According to Okonjo (1983), women’s major roles in traditional Igbo society were played in the home as wife and mother. Her husband did “men’s work” which entails clearing the bush and planting yam to provide the family with enough yams until the next planting season, while the women planted crops like pepper, okro etc. Women made mats, pottery and wove clothes; women processed palm –oil, palm kernels and market them. According to Okono (1983), it is a punishment to deprive a woman opportunity of attending the market. Levin (1965) describes the function which a market fulfills in the life of the Igbo women when she says -it is the battle field, their opportunity, their channel of expression, it is their club and theatre, their news- paper and their post office. Looking at this crucial role of women in culture, one can assume that, if the role is not properly learned, the national development we are expecting may not be forthcoming. Women are the main custodian of social, cultural and rudimental values of a society. This custodian role of women has been threatened by colonialism, modern technology and advent of Western Education where women are grossly under privileged.

The Issue of Gender In National Development

Development means different things to different people. Mabogunje (1980) identifies them to be economic, growth, modernization distributive justice, socio-economic transformation and spatial reorganization. Some people however stressed material prosperity as the ultimate objectives of development efforts. For example, Rogers (1976) describes development as a type of social change in which new ideas are introduced within a social system to produce higher per capital incomes and levels of living through more production, methods and improved social organizations

Rogers (1980) believed that development should mean “a widely participatory process of social changes in society intended to bring about social and material advancement (including greater equality, freedom and other valued qualities) for the majority of people through gaining control over their environment”. Murrel, (1992) has claimed that women predominate among the poor in the world today and they are more in the rural areas. Their annual incomes throughout the world have declined so sharply in recent years that they had fallen below poverty line.

Rural women according to Jeminiwa (1995), are getting poorer and further marginalized both in the utilization of available resources and access to development resources. Although, male chauvinists may be right in saying that women are affected by poverty, it is clear to the most simplistic analyst that women are far more disadvantaged and more vulnerable. The UNDP report (1990), claimed that majority of African women still work for between 14-18 hours per day and produce between 50-80 percent of Sub-Sahara Africa’s food, fetch water, gather firewood, and care for the family In Nigeria, according to ijere (1991), women form over half of the rural population and it is estimated that 80 percent of rural labour force is provided by women. Another estimate by the UNDP claims that about one third of all African households are headed by women.

In terms of sectional allocation, agriculture appears to be the occupation of 70.3 per cent of Nigeria rural women. Yet it is known that agriculture has the largest chunk of the poor for women, the poverty is compounded by the fact that only 8 percent of women hold title to the land they work on (UNFPA, 1992). In the education sector, women also fare worse than men. For example, 46.3 percent of female world wide are considered illiterate (UNFPA, 1993), in Nigeria, the percentage of women-illiterates is 67 percent.

Education brings benefits to the educated in the forms of access to information and more economic and political influence. Education can make women gain more authority in the home and greater control over resources as a prelude to having more say in family decision. Education is required for skill’s acquisition and consequently to increase the competitiveness of women. Low education therefore generally limits the upward mobility of Nigerian women.

The data enumerated so far are mere tips of the ice berg and seem to suggest that women are grossly disadvantaged. This therefore raises the issue of women participation in development process. If development is about people and there are evidences that a group of those people are disadvantaged, it has implications about their level and degree of participation. But one should identify female’s different profession so that appropriate clues to reality can be provided.

Arnstein (1969) in her popular ‘ladder of citizen participation” has provided a useful tool. She identifies various steps of participation from informing and incorporating their needs into national development programmes or are they in full control of their situations? National development is about human beings the enablement of blooming of the creative capabilities, irrespective of sex. Development starts with people irrespective of sex and addresses the issues of the orientation, organization, values, self reliance, self esteem and discipline and proceeds to the production and utilization of material endowments for improved and sustainable quality of life.

THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The major problem facing the Warri community and every other community in Nigeria is that of deprivation of women‟s right to participate in their full capacity in religious, economic, political and social activities just like their male counterparts. This hinders their ability to operate in their full capacity in development project in the local government, like every other local (rural) area. The literate women in Warri outnumber that of the illiterate but still create little ignorance among some of other women defending their rights

Another major source of problem is the men controlling the affairs of their families, prevents or sanctions their wives from participating or partaking in some activities of women from the local government.

Some men whose wives are appointed or elected leader stopped their wives in such leadership roles thereby compounding the problems of women organization in the Warri north local government area of the Delta State.

Another source of problem is lack of finance. This affects the organizational structure of men as a result of the fact that majority of the women are house wives who depend on their husbands. There is need for the women to finance themselves independently so as to stand a better chance to assist in their homes and also in the society. Also incompetence in management and control of women organization by

their executives hinders their development and efforts. At times some women leaders seem to antagonize one another when working together towards achieving a set goal. Child bearing also affects women in participating in other activities.

The problem of community development in Nigeria is a serious concern to Nigerians and the international community. The situation has engendered political instability, dictatorial governments, lack of rule of law/social justice, and irresponsible leadership‟s e.t.c, resulting to stagnation in poverty and underdevelopment; this raises some major questions such as

What are the factors responsible for the failure of community development and women empowerment in Warri north local government area of Delta State?
How has the government contributed to women empowerment and community development in Warri north local government area of Delta State?
- THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study offers an overview of education’s benefits to women, families, economies, and societies and highlights the ongoing concerns about education in MENA countries. It also looks at education’s links with fertility and employment, two important elements in women’s empowerment.

In addition, the benefits of female education for women’s empowerment and gender equality are broadly recognized:

As female education rises, fertility, population growth, and infant and child mortality fall and family health improves.
Increases in girls’ secondary school enrollment are associated with increases in women’s participation in the labor force and their contributions to household and national income.
Women’s increased earning capacity, in turn, has a positive effect on child nutrition.8
Children — especially daughters — of educated mothers are more likely to be enrolled in school and to have higher levels of educational attainment.
Educated women are more politically active and better informed about their legal rights and how to exercise them.
- RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002), the International Conference on Population and Development (1994), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), and the 2005 World Summit all acknowledged the pivotal and important role women play in sustainable development.

How has the lack of government assistance hindered women educational contribution, empowerment and community development in Warri north local government area?
What are the problems hindering women‟s participation in community development?

In what ways have women contributed to the development of Warri north local government area?
How can women be empowered in Warri north local government area?
What strategies can be adopted to enhance women participation in community development of Warri north local government area?
- RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H1: Women have contributed to the development of education in Warri.

H2: The contribution of women to education have not been felt in Warri, Delta State.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The Study was carried out in Warri North Local Government area of Delta State.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Perhaps the field where Nigerian women have excelled and where they have contributed immensely to National development is trading especially in the bulking, transportation, exchange and distribution of food stuff. According to Mabogunje (1991), all over Nigeria, especially in the southern parts, periodic markets are held every fourth, fifth or eight day where food stuff from farm is brought by rural women and sold to urban women. So regular and efficient has this process been that most urban Nigerians are not even aware of how foodstuff ends up in their kitchens. Indeed Jones (1969) commented that “If tropical markets for basic food-stuffs worked less well, we should probably know a great deal more about them

The same unobtrusive efficiency characterizes women’s participation in the trade in imported food items and beverages. Women have also been prominent in Nigeria in the processing and public preparation of food items generally in various crafts and cottage industries and in the provision of various services such as hair dressing, laundry, restaurants and running of public drinking places (Mabounje 1991). This study underscores the impact of women in education taking the following into consideration:

 As female education rises, fertility, population growth, and infant and child mortality fall and family health improves.

 Increases in girls’ secondary school enrollment are associated with increases in women’s participation in the labor force and their contributions to household and national income.

 Women’s increased earning capacity, in turn, has a positive effect on child nutrition.⁸

 Children — especially daughters — of educated mothers are more likely to be enrolled in school and to have higher levels of educational attainment.

 Educated women are more politically active and better informed about their legal rights and how to exercise them

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study of this nature cannot be carried out without difficulties in the process. One of the major limitations encountered in this work is the scarcity of data and material; another is the problem of finance. A study of this nature would require a lot of financial commitment in the area of the researcher moving around and also in the area of the questionnaire distribution.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
Community: A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.
Development: The gradual growth of something so that it becomes more advanced, stronger. This is also defined as skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity, self discipline, responsibility and material well-being. Rodney (1972)
Empowerment: To give someone the power to do something. To give somebody more control over their own life or the situation they are in.
Women: It is the plural of woman. It is defined as an adult female human being. Women all over the world constitute a gender group; they are a disadvantaged group based on their sex.
Women Network: Women coming and working together in a group to achieve an objective.

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