ABSTRACT
Women in southern Nigeria, like women in many other parts of West Africa, are not only responsible for the care of the home and children but are also expected to contribute to their families' incomes by engaging in farming, trading, or crafts. In agricultural communities, the care of young children presents no serious problem for there is either no separation of the home and workplace for the mothers, or the nature of their work permits mothers to bring their babies to their workplaces. The child-rearing functions of the extended family should be understood within the general socioeconomic functioning of the extended family system. Child-care arrangements within agrarian polygynous families should also be viewed in terms of the functioning of the institution. The growing urban child-care dilemma affects the individual working mother and her family on one level but also has wider implications for the nature of national economic development.
