A. Anony. looks at the role of women in society:
...Having been privileged to observe the interaction between men and women in different societies (and despite the much ballyhooed alleged "disadvantages" women would appear to be victims of in most societies), I maintain, "a people will never rise above what their women folk want for them" . Briefly, here are some reasons.
The most fundamental, and possibly the most important, is that women are responsible for the primary socialization of children, male and female, in any society, primarily for biological reasons, since human children are almost totally dependent on their mothers in their first years.
For reasons of occupation, and even today in the so-called modern societies, men tend to spend more time away from home than women. Thus in a situation where even a father or male figure is actually in control of setting the values by which the children are to be raised, it is still the woman that actually supervises whether these values are inculcated in the children or not, and how well.
Consequently, the values to which the society will eventually aspire is largely cultivated by the women. The male children would be shown male "role models" of success, and the female children would be raised to seek only male partners that display these" qualities".
Thus, in concrete terms, if a society has "heroes" who give up their lives for their country, or aspire towards intangible greatness like running the fastest mile, climbing the highest mountain, crossing the ocean in a paddle boat, or whatever, the women would raise their male children to emulate such feats, and encourage their daughters to seek such "qualities" of "heroism" in their future partners.
If on the other hand, a society adores only those with "power and wealth", regardless of how these are acquired, the children in such society would raised accordingly, the male children to aspire towards "power, wealth, and greatness", regardless how, and the female children would be encouraged to seek only partners that have these "qualities", regardless of how they were acquired.
Given the above picture, and looking at the role our women have played (and are still playing) in the time in office of people like Babangida (Operation Better Life for Rural Women comes to mind readily) and Abacha (and during the entire military interregnum in general), and what values mothers encourage in their children, male and female, and the expectations which these children are expected to fulfill, then "Nigerians are truly a weird lot, especially the women!"
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