As with other aspects of society, women's roles were primarily governed by regional and ethnic differences. In the north, Islamic practices were still common. This process meant, generally, less formal education; early teenage marriages, particularly in rural areas; and confinement to the household, which was often polygynous, except for visits to kin, ceremonies, and the workplace, if employment were available and permitted by a girl's family or husband. For the most part, Hausa women did not work in the fields, whereas Kanuri women did; both helped with harvesting and were responsible for all household food processing. Urban women sold cooked foods, usually by sending young girls out onto the streets or operating small stands. Research suggested that this practice was one of the main reasons city women gave for opposing schooling for their daughters. In the modern sector, a few women were appearing at all levels in offices, banks, radio, television, and the professions This trend resulted from women's secondary schools, teachers' colleges, and in the 1980s women. holding around one-fifth of university places--double the proportion of the 1970s. Research in the 1980s suggested that, for the Muslim north, education beyond primary school was limited to the daughters of the business and professional elites, and in almost all cases, courses and professions were chosen by the family, not the woman themselves.

A national feminist movement was inaugurated in 1982, and a national conference held at Ahmadu Bello University. The papers presented there suggested a growing awareness by Nigeria's university-educated women that the place of women in society required a concerted effort and a place on the national agenda; the public perception, remained far behind. For example, a feminist meeting in Ibadan came out against polygyny and then was soundly criticized by market women, who said they supported the practice because it allowed them to pursue their trading activities and have the household looked after at the same time. Research in the north, suggested that many women opposed the practice, and tried to keep bearing children to stave off a second wife's entry into the household. Although women's status would undoubtedly rise, for the foreseeable future Nigerian women deficiencyed the opportunities of men.