Domestic miscommunication as a development constraint

The paper examines communication breakdown in the home as expressed through physical violence on the wife. It discusses the subject from the perspective of its centrality to mobilizing women toward the development effort. From the findings of a study of wife-beating among a sample of junior workers in Nigeria, it is clear that development communication programmes for women would be more effective, if properly packaged with a consciousness of the limitations and handicap of the women at the grass-roots, as well as the often domineering personality of the man at the lower rung of the economy. The paper also identifies the involvement of husbands in development programmes for women as a vital key to promoting such programmes among women.