Prof Fatima Batul Mukhtar was a vice chancellor in Jigawa, Hajiya Fatima Binta Muhammad was a registrar Bayero University, Kano (BUK). A lot of other… - Saadatu Hassan Liman

Both my husband and myself came from well-educated families. And in both cases, we are not the eldest children and not the first to be educated, using the same cultural setting. That means we, the female children, are married off after our secondary school education, and we continue in our husband’s houses.

With this kind of background, it is not difficult for me to further my education and develop my career with the help of my husband and my parents, but we should not take their understanding for granted. I must say that with an understanding family, what seems to be difficult is made manageable. Throughout my studentship, I was also blessed by giving birth to four children; during my undergraduate and master’s. I delivered the fifth during my PhD studies. I started work only after securing my PhD admission, so that gave me a leverage to be mostly at home for my children at their early growing periods.

However, there are a number of factors that have perhaps constituted hindrances to the realisation of the expected target. Examples of such factors are poverty, early marriage, insecurity and other cultural factors. Nevertheless, we are certainly moving; change is eminent, though slow.