EDUCATION AND GENDERED ROLES IN POST- ADJUSTMENT IGBO SOCIETY

The impact of Igbo lost the 1967-70 making Biafra-Nigeria war was of collective punishment of the Igbo through the policy of marginalization and exclusion. This strategy of disempowerment imposed a heavy price on the Igbo attitude to education. The frustrations of the educated Igbo males to find accommodation in the formal sector of Nigerian economy pushed them into the informal sector for survival and social mobility. For Igbo men, investment in education was seen as a waste leaving it for female folks. But post-adjustment neo-liberalization of the Nigerian economy and the consequent retreat of the state altered the dynamics that created a level playing field for job competition, thus creating room for the empowerment of Igbo women by the virtue of their educational attainment. The paper examines these changing dynamics of gender roles of Igbo society arising from these changes in the structure of Nigerian economy. It employed a multiple method of data collection including documented materials and surveys which was analyzed using descriptive analysis to arrive at the finding that changes in gendered access to education among the Igbo society has altered the traditional Igbo gendered role.