Women in Nigeria
The social role of women in Nigeria varies according to religious, cultural and geographic factors. However, many Nigerian cultures see women solely as mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. For instance, women in Northern Nigeria are more likely to be secluded in the home, than women in Southern Nigeria, who tend to participate more in public life. Modern challenges for the women of Nigeria include child marriage and female genital mutilation. Social issues. Child marriage. Child marriage is quite common in Nigeria, with 43% of girls being married before their 18th birthday, and 17% before they turn 15 . The prevalence, however, varies greatly by region. Nigeria's total fertility rate is 5.07 children/woman. Nigeria's high fertility rate is associated with socio-economic problems and under-development. Politics. Participation in politics. "See:" Nigerian Women in Politics In The World's Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report for 2018, Nigeria was ranked 139th out of a total 149 countries, in terms of gender gap in 'political empowerment'. During 2015 Nigerian elections, Nigeria had 20 women out of 359 in its Lower House (5.6%) and 7 out of 109 in Upper House (6.4%). In Nigeria's 2019 elections , 7.3% of the Nigerian Senate and 3.1% of the House of Representatives are women. There are no state governors that are women. There are no laws implemented to improve the gender gap. In 2014, the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) and the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) outlined “Nigerian Women Charter of Demand” that demanded to have 35% of women incorporated in all sectors of government. The barriers to women participation in politics are largely due to attitudes to gender, negative attitude towards to women in leadership. In particular, female candidates often suffer from election violence, threats or  hate speech. Political parties have excluded women, and do little to encourage the participation. To help increase the number of women working in the government, The Nigerian Women’s Trust Fund (NWTF) uses funding, networking opportunities, mentoring, training for leadership, and advocacy. It is supported by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (MWASD), UN Women. Education. Female genital mutilation. Female genital cutting (also known as female genital mutilation) in Nigeria accounts for a significant portion of female genital cutting/mutilation (FGM/C) cases, worldwide. The practice is considered harmful to girls and women and a violation of human  rights. FGM causes infertility, maternal death, infections, and the loss of sexual pleasure. Nationally, 27% of Nigerian women between the ages of 15 and 49 were victims of FGM, as of 2012. In the last 30 years, prevalence of the practice has decreased by half in some parts of Nigeria. It was reported that about one fourth of Nigerian women reported having ever experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) as of 2013. Studies carried on the prevalence of IPV in four Geo-political zones of Nigeria indicated that South East had 78.8%, North had 42%, South South had 41%, and South  West had 29%. Polygamy. 12 out of the 36 Nigerian states recognize polygamous marriages as being equivalent to monogamous marriages. All twelve states are governed by Islamic Sharia Law. The States, which are all northern, include the states of Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara which allows for a man to take more than one wife. Elsewhere, both Christians and traditionalists in polygamous unions are recognized by customary law. These unions are contingent upon the absence of prior civil marriage, as bigamy technically applies, but even when present, men are seldom ever prosecuted  for bigamy in Nigeria. Women's advocacy. A national feminist movement was inaugurated in 1982, and a national conference held at Ahmadu Bello University. The papers presented there indicated a growing awareness by Nigeria's university-educated women that the place of women in society required a concerted effort and a place on the national agenda; the public perception, however, remained far behind. As an example, a feminist meeting in Ibadan came out against polygamy and was then soundly criticized by market women, who said they supported the practice because it allowed them to pursue their trading activities and have  the household looked after at the same time. Research in the north has indicated that many women opposed the practice, and tried to keep bearing children to stave off a second wife's entry into the household. Although women's status would undoubtedly rise, for the foreseeable future Nigerian women lacked the opportunities of men. Yinka Jegede-Ekpe, a Nigerian HIV/AIDS activist and HIV-positive individual, established the Nigerian Community of Women Living With HIV/AIDS in 2001. The group intended to inform women about the risks of HIV/AIDS and to empower them to speak out. Regional differences . Northern Nigeria. In the north, practices that were introduced in terms of women's position in society have been mainly as a result of colonialism and the introduction of salafism and wahhabism thought into the traditionally sufist region. This process has yielded, generally, less formal education; early teenage marriages, especially in rural areas; and confinement to the household, which was often polygamous, except for visits to family, ceremonies, and the workplace, if employment were available and permitted by a girl's family or husband. For the most part, Hausa women did not work in the fields, whereas Kanuri women did ; both helped with harvesting and were responsible for all household food processing. Urban women sold cooked foods, usually by sending young girls out onto the streets or operating small stands. Research indicated that this practice was one of the main reasons city women gave for opposing schooling for their daughters. Even in elite houses with educated wives, women's presence at social gatherings was either nonexistent or very restricted. In the modern sector, a few women were appearing at all levels in offices, banks, social services, nursing, radio, television, and the professions (teaching, engineering, environmental design, law, pharmacy, medicine, and  even agriculture and veterinary medicine). This trend resulted from women's secondary schools, teachers' colleges, and in the 1980s women holding approximately one-fifth of university places—double the proportion of the 1970s. Research in the 1980s indicated that, for the Muslim north, education beyond primary school was restricted to the daughters of the business and professional elites, and in almost all cases, courses and professions were chosen by the family, not the woman themselves. However, in the last few years, the rate of women's employment has apparently increased as more women have been employed in the modern sector . You find them as cashiers in the banks, teachers in public and private primary and secondary schools, nurses at hospitals as well as television hosts of different TV programs. Although, the issue of women not occupying top positions still remains a huge challenge all over the country and across all sectors as most of these positions are occupied by men with little opportunities for equally qualified women. In addition, young ladies deciding on courses and professions to choose from now have the full autonomy to do that in some households especially in the southern part of the country. However, the  north still lags behind in these apparent changes due to cultural laws. Southern Nigeria. In the south, women traditionally had economically important positions in interregional trade and the markets, worked on farms as major labour sources, and had influential positions in traditional systems of local organization. The south, like the north, had been polygynous; in 1990 it still was for many households, including those professing Christianity. Women in the south, had received Western-style education since the nineteenth century, so they occupied positions in the professions and to some extent in politics. In addition, women headed households, something not seriously  considered in Nigeria's development plans. Such households were more numerous in the south, but they were on the rise everywhere. Recognition by authorities. Generally, in Nigeria, development planning refers to "adult males," "households," or "families". Women were included in such units but not as a separate category. Up until the 1980s, the term "farmer" was assumed to be exclusively male, even though in some areas of the nation women did most of the farm work. In Nigerian terms, a woman was almost always defined as someone's daughter, wife, mother, or widow. Single women were suspect, although they constituted  a large category, especially in the cities, because of the high divorce rate. Traditionally, and to some extent this remained true in popular culture, single adult women were seen as available sexual partners should they try for some independence and as easy victims for economic exploitation. In Kaduna State, for example, investigations into illegal land expropriations noted that women's farms were confiscated almost unthinkingly by local chiefs wishing to sell to urban-based speculators and would-be commercial farmers. Notable figures. Science. Notable scientists include: References. (Data as of 1991.)