Are Women Taking Over the Home (Financially) in Nigeria?

As women all over the world battle to rise to top positions in politics and other spheres of life, most Nigerian women are also taking over the headship of homes. This is attested by the large number of women who are now bread winners against the order of God and nature.

Mrs. Cecilia Adaudu from Benue state is a lecturer with one of the nation’s polytechnic and speaking to leadership on the role of women at home, the mother of three said” for the past 8years, I have been the bread winner in my home. My husband is also a teacher but he never brings his money home. It is always one need or the other, most times his family burdens are more important than our own. He drinks and smokes and naturally spends the money outside.Click to read more...

Another woman who is also shouldering the needs of the family is Mrs. Abigail Ishaya, a trader and she said “I have been the bread winner in my family since I got married over 19years ago. I sell foodstuff in Nyanya market. The only thing he does is to buy like a bag of rice once in a while, but I buy the soup ingredients and other things in the house. I also pay most of the school fees; sometimes he will give half of the fees and tell me to balance it. It was my late father that gave me money to start this business when he saw the suffering I was going through in my matrimonial home. I would have gone to further my education because I have only a school cert and we got married when I was just 19years old. But I can’t because the children are in school and I have to pay their fees. It is not easy. There are times I curse the day I got married, it has brought me nothing but only pains and suffering. My mates who furthered their education come to buy foodstuff form me and when I see how good they are doing, I feel so ashamed. My only consolations are my kids”.

‘’Even though some people are beginning to accept it as a norm, many women find it painful and frustrating, they detest being the bread winners and that is the cause of many problems in marriages nowadays. I have counsel many women who are in this situation and most of them are unhappy. That is why many women are beginning to leave their husbands because in most cases, they will suffer and bring in the money, but the man will use the same money to chase women outside’’ Mrs Adebisi said.

Is this really going on? Is it true? Are women taking over the position of men in the house?

Additional info from: Leadership paper