The Potential of a woman is Indeed her Wealth

Coming from a family of more women than men in a community where women are less regarded than men was not a funny experience. 

The woman has had her first 5 children as girls with only a boy at interval, and when she had the 6th one as another girl, she was abandoned in the hospital to sort herself out. From that moment, life indeed became tough for her. However, she continued in her child bearing and this time around had another set of 6 children with 5 boys and a girl at interval. Peace now returned again in the home but not in the community who had earlier advised that she should be sent packing for having more girls than boys. 

A more serious issue arose later, that these girls should not be sent to school rather they should only be trained in farm work and get married at the sight of any suitor, pending on when their younger brothers will grow and now be sent to school. 

Oh!  thank God for the mother of these girls who stood her ground to insist that her girls must go to school. Truly,  it merited her different negative names in the community and even enmity but she was firm in her quest and she ensured that all her surviving girls are graduates. 

Though the surviving boys are also graduates but the potentials in the female folk of the family has made great impact to the development and general well being of the family. Those females who came first eventually catered for the education of those their male brothers. Even in their places of marriage and the quality of men they married are enviable. Now the community has reverted some of their negative sayings in the past and families are massively sending their daughters to higher institutions . The number of female graduates of the community are now running closer to that of the males of the community. 

This is the potential of a woman which has brought great transformation to a whole large community and to the society at large. This for me is wealth of a woman. Ability to use what she had to make positive changes in her environment. This woman in question was my mother.

I,m that 5th daughter who was abandoned in the hospital with her mother, I have taken after my mummy. I'm  really gender sensitive and will not like to see women of any category being maltreated by the male folk. For my community to still be marginalizing those women who don't have male children, or who don't have children at all, or those who did not marry, or teenage girls who gave birth in their homes outside wedlock, I have a burning zeal in helping these set of female folk. As a woman activist I want to put an end to those inhumane and unacceptable treatments that are still existing in my community. 

This article is submitted via wealth of women. 

Obioma.