As Africa’s urban systems change and transform with more women becoming educated and getting work outside the home and more men are confronting unemployment and retrenchment, an emerging phenomenon has surfaced challenging common gender identities and roles in the context of families. Current livelihood realities reconstruct and renegotiate how household needs are met and who meets these needs, consequently questioning traditional patriarchal dictates. Increasing numbers of women in Africa’s urban centres play breadwinning roles and become lifelines for their families. Unfortunately, research and literature say little about the experiences of these women as they navigate unusual social spaces. This article investigates the challenges that breadwinning women face and how they cope with these challenges in a Nigerian megacity. Data were gathered through In-depth Interviews (IDIs) with 20 female breadwinning families and the theoretical framework adopted is a triangulation of modernisation and patriarchy theories. Data analysis was done through content analysis and presented as ethnographic narratives and summaries. Important findings were made and presented in this article.

Even though the phenomenon of female family support may not be entirely new in Africa, breadwinning is the primary role of men in most African societies. However, as more women get education and enter paid employment, and some men lose jobs, traditional breadwinning roles are challenged and, sometimes, inverted as growing numbers of women become family breadwinners. Female breadwinning may not be without implications for family stability, however, as it confronts instituted normative gender order in patriarchal societies. While female breadwinners are increasingly common in industrialized societies, and literature exists on their trajectories in such contexts, more recent works are needed in Africa, particularly Nigeria. This article, therefore, examines the nexus of female breadwinning and family stability in Nigeria. This article is an important one on a growing phenomenon in Africa resulting from urbanization, industrialization and economic crises in certain regions of the continent. Guided by modernization and patriarchy theories, the study relied on qualitative method of data collection. Twenty in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted in contexts of female breadwinning families. Data were analysed and presented as interpretive narratives. An interesting relationship was found between female breadwinning and family stability in the setting. Generational influences and associated outcomes were also found and presented in this article.