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Bolanle Austen-Peters, a renowned filmmaker and Yemi Keri, the co-founder of Rising Tide Africa, have urged Nigerian women to dare to dream and remain resilient.
The women, who spoke in separate interviews with News Central TV, highlighted the challenges women face in balancing their careers with family and the gender-specific roles society expects them to fulfil.
Nigeria is largely seen as a conservative and patriarchal society, and this shapes how women are perceived in many communities. Although women are visible in politics, business, media, and activism, traditional gender expectations still influence social attitudes, opportunities, and power dynamics.
For context, women are traditionally viewed as caregivers and expected to be wives, mothers, and homemakers. Some cultures force women to shelve their careers and ambitions to become mothers and wives instead.
Keri, a women’s rights activist and co-founder of Rising Tide Africa, noted that it is often difficult for mothers to balance their careers with family life.
“As a mother and as a woman with a very strong career, you navigate, you cannot balance. You navigate the waters. There will be times when you need your support system. There will be times when you have to drop your job and prioritise the family. There’ll be times when you try to make the family try and understand that you have to prioritise your job this time,” said Keri.
“So it depends on each situation, and you have to navigate very carefully because for every decision you make, there will be consequences. And your consequences are really based on whatever situation and decisions you make. So you have to think at all times about how this will affect your job or your family.”
Politics, religious leadership, and traditional authority structures are also largely dominated by men in Nigeria. In some Nigerian communities, leadership is culturally linked to masculinity.
But these two women, who have risen above the stereotypes that the country’s patriarchal and conservative culture expects of them, are inspiring other women to walk in their footsteps.
Austen-Peters, the renowned maker, explained that these stereotypes are social constructs.
“You are a human being first and foremost and the way you birth a male child is the same way you birth a female child. Everything that comes thereafter is a human construct. The society tells you he must do this and she must do this. It is the society,” said Austen-Peters.
The filmmaker also urged women to pursue their dreams and actualise their God-given talents.
“The world is your oyster,” Austen-Peters added.
