MARRIAGE AND ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES: CAREER PATTERNS OF HAUSA WOMEN IN KATSINA CITY
MARRIAGE AND ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES: CAREER PATTERNS OF HAUSA WOMEN IN KATSINA CITY
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Date
1979-12
Authors
Pittin, Renee Ilene
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the social life of Hausa women in the Nigerian
city of Katsina, and focuses on their perceptions and manipulation of
available statuses and roles. Seen objectively, Hausa men dominate the
wider political and economic life of the community: the men view women
as subordinates whose lives they control. The ideology of women's
seclusion supports this male view, but its most important 6ocial
consequence is to define an arena from which all males are virtually
excluded. This women's arena is domestic in two respects: the women's
domain is the residential compounds, and the women's economic
contributions are largely based on commodity production within these
units. However, the domestic sphere is not a residual area of social
life. Women's profits and other sources of income are the basis of
extensive ceremonial exchanges which may involve hundreds of women in
any single event. Informal and flexible women's networks operate in
many contexts, most strikingly in protecting women threatened in times
of unrest.
Women's and men's perceptions of women and their social life differ
substantially, particularly in the women's emphases on the variety of
positive choices open to them, and their active role in making decisions
which affect their lives. Yet when women are with men, they preserve
their exclusive social arena from male interference by deliberately
behaving in ways which confirm male expectations of their passivity.
A central theme of the thesis is the structure of the often contradictory
male and female models of women, and the reasons for and consequences of
their coexistence in Hausa society.
The study considers the wider social context within which women
act, and outlines the historical processes resulting in a diminution
of women's authority in the political sphere. Opportunities provided
by seclusion, and women's distinct perceptions of their social life,
allow them considerable economic self-sufficiency and autonomy, and
satisfy social and psychological expectations. The women's arena is
complex, and the alternative career strategies available to women are
highly structured.
Case studies and quantitative data are used to analyse these
strategies, and their advantages and disadvantages. Although Hausa
women begin adult life as secluded married women, divorce is easily
obtained, after which women may choose to remarry elsewhere, or to
remain non-married. Or they may become prostitutes and achieve more
complete independence and great personal freedom of movement. Women
move easily between these statuses, and this mobility which is both
spatial and social is extensive, yet much of it is virtually invisible
to men, independent of male control, and ignored by the male model
of women. The choices which women make are based on their own
perceptions and priorities.
The thesis is intended as a contribution to West African
ethnography, to the study of women in Muslim society, and, in a wider
framework, to the debate concerning the existence and the nature of
women's models of society.
Description
Submitted for the degree of Ph.D. in Anthropology
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
Keywords
MARRIAGE,, ALTERNATIVE,, STRATEGIES:, CAREER,, PATTERNS,, HAUSA WOMEN,, KATSINA CITY