NIGERIA-LABOUR: Changing Jobs, Changing Roles

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

Ijede, Aug 22 1996 (IPS) - Men and women peasant farmers, with hoes and cutlasses in hand, sweat it out on their small pieces of farmland in the drizzling rains.

The farmers in this riverside village, 43 kms east of Lagos, Nigeria’s former capital, prepare their land for planting black- eyed peas, their main source of protein besides fish.

On this particular day, about 11 women, some with their grandchildren on holiday from school and a few elderly men, most of them between the ages of 60 and 70 years, make ridges on fallow lands near their cassava and yam plots.

Sixty-one-year-old Wuraola Oguntola told IPS: “This is the best time to make ridges for beans which need about one month of rain for a good yield”.

She inherited one-acre of land from her late husband who died in 1981. She grows staple foods such as cassava, maize, beans and vegetables.

Wuraola sells some of her crops to supplement her 250 naira (about three U.S. dollars) monthly pension. She is a retired school teacher.

Her three children live in the city, but seldom send money to support Wuraola and a grandchild with whom she lives.

“Children no longer take care of parents like before. It is not their fault, but the economy of our country dictates this,” Wuraola told IPS.

“There is not enough for their immediate family, not to mention the extended family. My son is a clerk and my daughters are married,” she added.

The migration of men and younger Nigerians to the city for greener jobs, leaving their elderly parents, mainly women to till the land, has led to changing gender roles in the rural areas.

About two decades ago, farming in this village, except for harvesting and the sell of produce, was done only by men. But today, women are tilling the land.

And in the cities, many Nigerian men who are unable to find jobs or who are retrenched during the economic downturn, are turning to areas previously regarded as women’s work. Hair dressing, selling food and running local canteens and beer parlours are no longer exclusive to women.

Women too are crossing the gender job line in the cities. Those in the civil service are braving the roads as taxis drivers to supplement their salaries.The average monthly salary of a middle level civil servant here is about 3,000 naira (about 37.5 U.S. dollars).

According to a the most recent data from the Federal Office of Statistics on employment in the agricultural, forestry and fishing sector in the urban areas, 25.2 percent are men (15-59 age group) and 16.6 percent are women (same age group).

In the rural areas however, 80.4 percent of those employed in these sectors are men and 56.9 percent are women.

In the trade, restaurant and hotel sectors, some 53.9 percent of the workforce in these sectors in the urban areas are women, while 17.5 percent are men.

Unemployment has driven many men and women into businesses which in the past would have been considered off limits.

“We must survive whatever happens. I don’t care what job I do so far as I can make some money to take care of the family,” said James Akeredolu, who runs a canteen in Akoka, a surburb of Lagos.

“I spent the little amount I collected as gratuity after my retirement as a company worker to set up this restuarant.

“I have to do the cooking and serving myself to reduce the cost of employing some women to run the place for me,” said 56- year-old Akeredolu, a divorcee and father of seven.

While men like Akeredolu have no problem with their new jobs, which entail adopting new gender roles, some men here find the phenonmenon strange.

“Strange things are happening in Nigeria. How can a man dress hair for women. It is morally wrong…,” said Jimoh Abdul, a Muslim leader.

“I cannot allow a male hairdresser to come to my compound to dress my wife’s hair. The job is for women and it should be left to women alone,” Abdul added.

Reverend Emmanuel Obafemi of the African Church agreed: “It is morally wrong for a man to dress hair for women. It is quite different if he owns the salon, but employs ladies as hairdressers or stylists, but not for him to engage in physical touching or fondling of the hair of another man’s wife”.

But Angela Iwugu, a hairdresser here, sees nothing wrong with men styling women’s hair.

“I don’t really see anything wrong with a male hairdresser so far as the customer is satisfied with his work. Some women prefer male hairdressers, because they say the men are better and are very patient with their customers,” Iwugu told IPS.

Iwugu added that male hairdressers are not a threat to her business because: “We still have our customers who will never allow men to touch their hair maybe for religious reasons”.

Psychologist Olu Olukanmi, told IPS that the changing job roles of men and women in Nigerian society is not bad and is a reflection of what has already happened in other parts of the world.

“It is only in this part of the world that we designate certain jobs to a certain sex. It is wrong,” Olukanmi said.

“…Anybody, of any sex can take up any job, so long as he or she is qualified to do it, be it hairdressing or cooking. It has been known that the best cooks are men while in some communities women are better farmers than men,” Olukanmi, a lecturer at the University of Lagos added.

“…I do not see any problems or implications for the society if men are taking up jobs regarded as women’s. It is more a function of social and economic empowerment,” Olukanmi said.