Gender segregation in the inculcation of morals

Gender segregation in the inculcation of morals

Talk about gender segregation as regards the moral upbringing of a child, and you'll be painting a vivid portrait of the average Nigerian parent. Walk down a quiet street and listen closely, you'll hear them as they chastise their female child in the confines of their home for daring to leave the dishes undone and failing to do the rest of her chores around the house.

Ask her about their male child, and why he is sitting idly on the settee, tapping away on the screen of his phone, or holding pads of the latest PS game, eyes fixated on the TV screen. They might not be able to give you the true answer sitting comfortably in their mind, but believe me when I tell you that the answer is that, he is not the one that'll be saddled with the responsibility of taking care of his home when he eventually gets married. His wife will be the one to do that. So why should they bother about whether or not he chooses to learn how to do basic things around the house in his years of adolescence.

And this is how we raise bachelors whose house reek of unwashed clothes thrown carelessly around, with floors that harbour a truckload of sand, and a sink filled with used dishes stacked together, sleeping in rooms that only get to be arranged on the hint of a suspected visit of a lover. But are we ready for this discussion? I guess not.

Every evening, daughters get scolded for exceeding the permitted time given to them to stay out; they are warned sternly not to wait till the clouds turn dark before they head back home, because this makes them prone to the dangers lurking in the street posed as agberos. They are the ones who mustn't drag the family's in the mud with a protruded stomach.

But we all forget one thing: the street urchins were once morally-neglected boy children, who lacked the basic guide on how to be a reasonable person in the nearest future, who had to learn about sex and its intricacies all by themselves.

Have you seen an average Nigerian mother piling questions upon questions on her daughter as to why she had to go outside to pick a certain call? She takes the form of a police officer in an interrogation room, a sentence is not enough for an answer. She wants to know if her daughter has been testing the waters of waywardness. Would the world not be a better place if the same energy is channelled to the boy child as well?

This is a call for more voices to be lent on the advocacy of the boy child as well. Society needs to redirect their footsteps. If you constantly echo equality for adult males and females, why not do the same for the young males and females, especially when it comes to the inculcation of strict moral uprightness and principles?

I see the way you turn out for the girls on international girl child day; it's beautiful and adds colour to the world. But I bet you do not even know there's a day set aside for the advocacy of boy children as well.

We can rewrite the rampant stories of rape and other form of sexual violence. But we need to do this by taking one boy child and one girl child at a time. Include the boys as well. Train the boys too.

Picture from @Unslash.com