2014/11/24 by Uchendu Eugene Chigbu · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Anthropology #Community development #Economic growth #Ethnography #Gender Roles and Identity Studies #Gender studies #Narrative #Position (finance) #Relation (database) #Rural community #Socioeconomics #Sociology #Space (punctuation) #Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development
paper · doi:10.1080/13668803.2014.981506
openalex publication_date 2014/11/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Most studies on women have ignored women's view of themselves in relation to their roles in community development. This study uses interview and ethnographic data from Nigeria to investigate women's narratives of themselves concerning their position in a rural cultural space in relation to community development. It explores ways of repositioning patriarchal or gender unresponsive cultures for eliciting women's potentials in community development. It emphasises how women's cultural constrains in a patriarchal community have led to a rare survival strategy – that is, the evolution of an invisible matriarchy. As a recommendation, it presents a framework for culture repositioning and a map of actors' responsibilities for its achievement. It contributes to ongoing debates on women in rural community development. It raises conceptual questions about customary practices that affect women's values in communities in Nigeria's rural areas. Finally, it presents three main lessons that can be drawn by women (and men) in traditional communities in non-Western societies.