Evolution of Gender Role: Implications for Sustainable Development in Nigeria

From the time immemorial, culturally and socially there have been distinctive roles performed by different sexes in the society based on individual’s gender identity. It is not farfetched that there have been disparity in the roles between male and female. This paper investigated gender roles as evolved in four periods namely, renaissance, baroque, classical and twentieth century. Renaissance period revealed that men and women have different roles in the society as masculine and feminine, appropriate for men and women. Females were expected to marry and be limited to domestic roles. Baroque period was highly spiritual devoted to different kinds of musical performance and men were actively involved but females were restricted. Classical period does not bring any conspicuous changes as women were still subjected to their husband and a symbol of domestic inferior without civic rights. Men were so powerful and given total freedom and rights. Twentieth century bring about equal opportunities in many areas like, education, marriage, society recognition and so on and appliances made domestic work easy. It is therefore recommended that both sexes should be allowed to perform their gender roles to enhance greater and sustainable development and that university students should desist from following the obsolete pattern of living. Keywords: Gender, evolution, renaissance, baroque, classical, twentieth, roles. DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-36-11 Publication date: December 31st 201