The Emergence of the Male Breadwinner role in Africa

The Emergence of the Male Breadwinner role in Africa

Emergence of the Male Breadwinner Role in Africa

When looking back in history, according to Lindsay (2007), before males were idealised as the breadwinner of the household, women were also working and contributing economically to the household. When she states that “there was very little expectation that husbands would act as exclusive or even primary providers for wives and children” (Lindsay, 2007; 241 ). Herewith, my argument is that even though today it is assumed that the male breadwinner ideal has always been local tradition, it is in fact not so, as there was a time and place in history whereby both man and woman of a household were working. Lindsay (2007) points out that couples in wedlock have in the past combined their incomes, specifically looking at the Yoruba women in Nigeria, Africa. It is herewith that I critically discuss the emergence of the male breadwinner role in Africa.

For years, families that needed to work had understood that everyone had to work. There was no such thing as the male breadwinner role. Women’s careers were commonly based in the trading markets in Yoruba. Lindsay (2007) draws from Oyewumi (1997) when looking at the fact that grouping of “woman” in South-western Nigeria, was not a native concept to their country and that the development of wives being dependent on their husbands was based on the colonial formation of the gender categories brought by the west. This meaning then that, historically, gender was not a meaningful category in Nigeria and women’s roles were to act as helpers towards their husbands. Regardless of the way “gender roles” were performed in Nigeria, Colonialism came and disrupted the cultural norms that Nigeria had going and in turn allowed men to possess a different degree of dominance. These norms were presented into Nigeria under colonialism. With colonialism, these norms became established and embedded into tradition. According to Lindsay (2007), in Nigeria, the wage labour became gendered, as...

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