The
other theory is the Gender Role Socialization; where Mead (1935)
provided one of the classical theories on the gender gap in education and work
on his analysis of the extraordinary diversity of sex roles in our own
(particular culture) and other cultures. Every known society, he states,
recognizes some differences between the sexes, but there are unique
characteristic tasks, manners, and responsibilities primarily associated with
women or with men. In her own analysis of
gender role socialization, Ezumah (2001) refers to this as that through which
the ideas people have about masculinity and femininity are inculcated.
Socialization is an on-going process of social learning, which starts at
infancy and continues till adulthood. Due to this gender role socialization,
boys and girls have different experiences as they grow in their families. This
situation is often manifested in the type of toys, duties and responsibilities
that are normally assigned to boys and girls. In most cases girls are reared to
have domestic orientation; they undertake the activities connected with
cooking, clearing, washing of clothes, fetching of water and firewood and
looking after the younger siblings. Consequent upon this is that the kind of
values inculcated in girls influence their out look in life; inequality in
terms of the first component (inequality of persons) is established in the
family when girls and women do most of the domestic chores, the male
superiority is being established. These
male/female segregated roles
influence the second component of
inequality (inequality of opportunity). This then manifests in :
i.
opportunity
to go to school;
ii.
whether
girls drop out of school to work in farms or to start trading and;
iii.
whether
girls are encouraged to have early marriage and these opportunities provided
lead them into the kind of job they do like quarry mining which has big health
implications.
The
unequal position of women which could be explained in the case of African women
in the rural areas go a long way in
explaining the unequal opportunities
provided for them. The second component
of inequality which is based on
opportunities outside the home now put the rural women in an unskilled
position, then introducing them to the only job they could do that exist around
them. And now with the existence of quarry mine, she is faced with the
associated implications of participating in such job. The rural Ebonyi
women could in the light of this
situation be viewed in the tedious work they do in the mine, unchecked work
hours, subsistence wage, exploitations
in various degrees which jeopardizes their well-being.