CHANGES IN POSITION OF WOMEN IN MODERN AFRICA AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK.

The article discusses the changes in position of women in modern Africa and their implications for social work. The changes in the position of women that are discussed in this article mainly concern women in Lagos, a city in Nigeria. The Yorubas and the Ibos are patrilineal societies. The survival of the subsistence economy of patrilineal society is centered within the lineage. The head of the lineage has control of the services of all the wives within the compound. Furthermore, a girl's marriage is the concern of the lineage, and creates a bond between her lineage and that of her husband. The rise of urbanization shows a continuous increase in the number of occupations, roles, and activities which must be carried out by trained, specialized personnel of both sexes. This made men leave their traditional form of life and come to live in the cities, where they are no longer under lineage control. It also made women leave their homes and move into towns, where the lineage is less able to exercise control over them. The specialization and mobility both tend to bring the men and women together, and to introduce them to new forms of relationships, impersonal, associational, temporary and technical.