ABSTRACT
This study has systematically examined the continuities and transformations in the economic, social and political systems as well as in the gender relations of the Igbo and how they affected the role of women in the development processes of southeastern Nigeria between 1900 and 1960. It has also explored the impact of colonialism, cash economy, the Christian mission and Western education as well as wars (World Wars I and II) on gender roles in Igbo society. The conclusion is that these external factors have contradictory effects on the people and the various aspects of their life. The above external factors did create and reinforce multiple gendered systems of power and authority in the political, social, economic and familial arenas of the Igbo. These arenas had thus witnessed intense reconfiguration and contestation of power among male and female genders. Igbo women, had therefore, adopted different modes of adjustment, negotiation and resistance to secure and defend their autonomy, protect their fertility as well as their socio-religious, political and economic spaces. Although in some instances, women succeeded in their effort to protect their autonomy and spaces, it is obvious that at the end, they largely gave in to the patriarchal pressures of colonial Igbo society.
