Celebration of childbirth, among the Igbo, is looked upon as an occasion of feasting and so every festal feature, especially good music is made available as a mark of thanksgiving to God. The birth of a new child is announced with a special kind of song called irri muo, and it is sung in celebration of the birth. Songs sung at childbirth are called umanwa, while in neighbouring communities, they are egwu omugho. Umanwa music is exclusively performed by women, and has survived until today in its original form through oral tradition. This paper, therefore, examines the celebration of childbirth through dance and the demystification of the male child in the Igbo Patriarchal Society. Among the findings, the paper acknowledges that there is always some excitement, merriment, joy and intoxication, mixed with some sparks of faith when the new entrant is added to a household. In addition, the paper recognizes that women are never fully recognized as mothers until the birth of a boy child. Disturbing as the preference is, this paper wonders and questions why women are being easily ridiculed, subjugated and divorced when and where the Y-chromosome, the sole determinant of the birth of the boy child is the exclusive preserve of the male gender. With this, the paper argues that since human personality, a prerogative and quality of every human being does not rest on gender, but on ability; the emphasis on the boy child is absolutely unnecessary because it does not add anything to ability. The paper further calls on the educated elite to enlighten their people to be aware that the dignity of the girl child is fundamentally, essentially and unquestionably equal to the dignity of the boy child. Finally, the paper concludes that, the male child has not in most cases fulfilled the long awaited expectations of being the second father in the house.

Women's lives and their bodies have been the unacknowledged casualties of men for too long. As a result of violence perpetrated against them, their productivity in workplaces have decreased over time. Understanding that productivity improvement is a key objective for industries, the thrust of the study is, therefore, to evaluate, from a sociological perspective, the consequences of violence on women's productivity in contemporary Nigerian society. A sample 595 respondents was selected through the multistage sampling techniques amongst working class women. The questionnaire was subjected to face and content validation by experts from gender and women studies. Chi-square was adopted to test the hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. Findings reveal that violence against women disrupts women's lives, destroys their health, undermines their confidence, and takes away their psychological sense of esteem, as well as undermines their full participation in social life. Secondly, the study show that women make several medical visits every year to treat injuries resulting from assaults by spouse thereby limiting the number of hours spent in the office. Essentially, violence against women lessens the woman's inability to work and promote productivity. Based on this, the study concludes that since women represent an important population group in Nigeria, there is an urgent need to address marital violence against them, particularly those in the formal sector of the economy because they make meaningful contributions to the overall labour force and general societal well-being of all and sundry. In view of this, the study recommends, amongst others, that government through state and non-state actions should ensure the strict enforcement of laws that protect women's rights, as well as deter their partners from subjecting them to violence. In addition, educational and religious institutions should re-orientate men to be more accommodating in their relationship with their women partners on the ills associated with marital violence particularly wife abuse, with a view to getting them unlearn such violent behaviours. Finally, there is a need for advocacy and concerted action that will involve the educational, health, civil and religious sectors of the society to evolve sustainable structures that will empower women and provide support to enable victims to react appropriately to violence.