Negotiating power and privilege : Igbo career women in contemporary Nigeria / Philomina E. Okeke-Ihejirika.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Okeke-Ihejirika, Philomina E. (Philomina Ezeagbor)

Series:

Research in international studies. Africa series ; no. 82.

Ohio University research in international studies. Africa series ; no. 82

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women, Igbo--Social conditions.

Women, Igbo.

Women, Igbo--Economic conditions.

Women, Igbo--Employment.

Women employees--Nigeria.

Women employees.

Working mothers--Nigeria.

Working mothers.

Sex role--Government policy--Nigeria.

Sex role.

Women--Government policy--Nigeria.

Women.

Sexual division of labor--Nigeria.

Sexual division of labor.

Nigeria--Social conditions.

Nigeria.

Nigeria--Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (244 p.)

Place of Publication:

Athens [Ohio] : Center for International Studies, Ohio University, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Even with a university education, the Igbo women of southeastern Nigeria face obstacles that prevent them from reaching their professional and personal potentials. "Negotiating Power and Privilege" is a study of their life choices and the embedded patriarchy and other obstacles in postcolonial Africa barring them from fulfillment. Philomina E. Okeke recorded life-history interviews and discussions during the 1990s with educated women of differing ages and professions. Her interviews expose both familiar and surprising aspects of the women's experience their victories and compromise within their families, marriages, and workplaces. Okeke explores the many factors that have shaped women's access to sponsorship and promotion in their quest to join men as partners in nation building. "Negotiating Power and Privilege" captures the voices of African female professionals and vividly portrays the women's continuous negotiation as wives, mothers, single women, and workers. It shows the inherent limitations of contemporary policies in developing nations that often prescribe secondary and advanced education for women as a panacea for every social ill. It is also an original and important contribution to African studies, gender studies, development studies, education policy, and sociology. This engagingly written book will appeal to a wide audience, ranging from undergraduate students to scholars and professionals."

Contents:

Placing Igbo women within an African context

Gender relations in family and society

From housewives to career women

Your life is not entirely your business

Gendered lives, gendered aspirations

Making it in paid employment

Balancing act

Ours is ours but my own is my own

Looking to the future.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-225) and index.

ISBN:

0-89680-438-0

OCLC:

70729439