Right from the onset, women have been known to be the pioneers of nation as they have ensured the stability, progress and long-term development of nations to the extent that some cultures actually attached great significance to them.
With marriage, a wife becomes like a multi-functional device, and her role in the society is like how a chameleon lives in nature. She is his beloved at night, during the day at work-a responsible employee, and a loving and caring mother at home.
All these responsibilities embodied in just one human, who assumes variety of roles- from that of a wife, caretaker, administrator, disciplinarian, teacher, re-creator, manager of family income, queen of the family and at the same time, has to play the most important of them all, the role of a mother.
- As a wife – nature made her a man’s helpmate and she sacrifices her personal pleasure and ambitions, sets standard of morality, relieve stress by maintaining peace and order in the household, as she happens to be the person to whom he turns for love, sympathy, understanding, comfort and recognition. She creates an enabling environment for her man to think more about the economic uplift of the family.
- As an administrator of the Household – a well-ordered disciplined household is essential to normal family life, and the wife in the family, usually assumes this role as the chief executive of an enterprise. She assigns duties among family members according to their interest and abilities, and provides resources in terms of equipment and materials to accomplish the job.
She plays a key role in the preparation and serving of meals, selection and care of clothing, laundering, furnishing and maintenance of the house. As an administrator, she organizes various social functions in the family for social development. She also plans various recreational activities to meet the needs of young and old members of the family. - Manager of Family Income – wife acts as the humble manager of the family income, it is her responsibility to secure maximum return from every naira spent, and is very calculating about loss and gain while spending money. She also contributes to the family income through her earning within or outside the home.
- Mother – The whole burden of child bearing and greater part of child rearing (motherhood) tasks are carried out by the woman in the family. She is primarily responsible for the child’s habit of self-control, orderliness, industriousness, theft or honesty. Her contacts during the formative period of his/her development, actually, sets up his/her behaviour pattern. You can say, she is responsible for the maintenance of utmost discipline in the family. She is naturally the first teacher of the child, since the first school of a child is on the laps of his/her mother. The child learns from the mother the laws of race, the manner of men, moral code and ideals due to the intimate and sustained contact with the child. She is able to discover and nurture the child’s special traits, aptitudes and attitudes which subsequently, play a role in the shaping of his/her personality.
*Wife-She is the central personality of the home and the family circle. Every member of the family at the end of the day, turns to her for sympathy, understanding and recognition. In terms of the unity of interacting personalities, the man provides the temple while the wife provides the ceremonies and the atmosphere.
Wives can no longer be considered as mere harbingers of peace, they are emerging as the source of power and symbol of progress. They are capable of sharing all the responsibilities of life.