However, women still held secondary positions to men "if woman had power, men had more power.
THEN ISLAM SPREAD .
• Reinforced the patrilineal aspects of these societies.
• Justified the subordination of women to men.
• In pre-Islamic society there was no regular law system protecting those rights women did possess. Thurs, men that had sufficient resources could marry as many women as they liked, and nothing except the power of an earlier wife's family could force the husband to treat her as well as he treated more recent wives. The subordination of women was explicit: Wolof women were supposed to find their fulfillment through submission to men. What Islam did, in this situation, was to provide a bill of rights.
• In doing so, women developed a sense of individualism not known before in the community system. For the first time, women were given the right to the goods paid for their bride prices; they received an inheritance from their fathers (albeit unequal from that of her brothers). Women also earned family rights through Islam: Islam limited the number of wives a man might take, gave a mother rights to her children, and obligated the father to maintain them even if under the mother's care.
CHILDHOOD AND MARRIAGE.
• Age 5 "girls are assigned domestic duties; Age 6 "considered for marriage.
• As she grows up, girls are taught domestic duties and child-care responsibilities, and taught that sex is a source of dishonor.
• In Hausa, the only word for an unmarried woman of childbearing age is karuwa, which translates as "prostitute."".
SEPARATION BETWEEN MALES AND FEMALES.
• LIVING QUARTERS: A husband and his wives have different living quarters in their home.
• AGE DIFFERENCE: Men marry much later than do girls, because men are expected to be able to support their wives once they marry.
