Literacy Rates Essays - Gender Studies, Marriage, Womens Rights

Literacy Rates There are several ways one can look at the status of women in any society. During the last decade at least three approaches, not necessarily mutually exclusive, were discernible. One was to examine the common demographic indicators that give an overall picture of women's relative standing vis-?-vis men. According to the 1981 census, the se ratio stood at 933 females per 1000 males. The literacy rate was 46.89 per cent for males and 24.82 per cent for females. The life expectancy at birth for females was 50 years and for males it was 50.9 years. The average age at marriage for females was 18.32 years and for males it was 23.27 years. The female work participation rate was 13.99 percent and the male work participation rate was 51.62 percent. Figures regarding economic participation rate for women have very little meaning as the definition of a worker has changed from one census to other. (Rehana Ghadially 1988 p.5) As a study by Australian demographer John C. Caldwell powerfully demonstrates, for both men and women in Ibo traditional society many children have been the surest and stronger source of prestige. In the Ibo society, remaining unmarried is an extreme social divergence. It was considered central to man's nature to beget, and women's to conceive and bear, children. For women, marriage traditionally brought a variety of economic responsibilities and often only one source of both honor and security: their children. According to the Ibo tradition the man had to pay the family of the bride a bride price to secure her marriage. The payment was given in exchange for the economic value of woman to her husband in her labor and her children. Hence, for the husband and wife marriage was as much as anything else an economic compact. (James L. Newman, 1995, p.122) Customs governing division of labor, rights to land and to children varied widely. However, while a woman was married her husband generally held her labor and its fruits firmly within its grasp. In addition, the brides usually went to live with her husband's kin, and she was dependent on this group in which she was a virtual outsider. (Jennifer Seymour Whitaker, 1990, p. 99) Once involved with her new household, an Ibo woman often lived a life quite separate economically from that of her husband, in which the basic unit was herself and her children. She was usually expected to cook her husband's food, to bear children regularly, and to feed and clothe the children as well. Her husband traditionally provided her with a hut and some land to farm. She supported her family by working the land allotted to her and by trading. Women usually did most of the cultivation. Therefore, it was accepted that women got plentiful land, and had rights to portions of family land for their own use, Often their surplus was theirs to keep; at other times they sold it to their husbands; sometimes their husbands kept it themselves. In any event, even though the women also did most of the cultivation on their husband's land, they did not share in their husband's income. Nor, when their husbands died, did the women inherit their property, which went to their sons or sometimes, to the sons of the husband's sisters. (P.98) Moreover, a woman herself is often inherited by her husband's brother, who marries her to give her home and keep her procreative powers in the family. However, ultimately, even more than men, women had to depend on their children for their economic well being, and, in their old age, for their survival. Between husband and wife, mutual respect was the most important personal bond. Intimate companionship or love in the sense we describe it was rare. Ibo women were expected to share their husbands with other wives. And in their competition for their husband's regard, honor grew most of all with the numbers of children one gave her husband and his family. (p. 97-102) As I mention before, being a mother was the most important role for an Ibo woman. It brings her prestige, pride, respect, and happiness. Therefore, traditionally, a failure to give birth would bring despair to the infertile woman. Her husband's reaction would be cruel. In Buchi