An Empirical Study of Hausa Language Ideology Among Urban Professional Women in Kano

Language ideology, defined as the beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions that speakers hold about language and its social functions, plays a critical role in determining language use choices, investment in language maintenance, and the social status attributed to particular languages and varieties. This study conducts an empirical investigation of Hausa language ideology among urban professional women in Kano, examining their beliefs about Hausa's social value, its relationship to Islamic identity, and its function in professional advancement. A qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design was employed, collecting structured questionnaire data from 150 professional women in Kano on language attitudes and use patterns, supplemented by in-depth interviews with 30 purposively selected respondents representing different professional sectors including healthcare, education, legal practice, and media. Narrative analysis was applied to interview data examining how professional women construct their relationships to Hausa and English through discourse. Findings reveal that Kano's urban professional women overwhelmingly affirm positive ideological orientations toward Hausa as the language of domestic intimacy, Islamic practice, and community belonging, while simultaneously orienting toward English as the language of professional competence and upward mobility. Hausa is rarely positioned as a language of intellectual achievement by respondents. This ideological bifurcation has implications for the professional domains in which Hausa will be used and valued. The study addresses a significant gap in empirical research on language ideology differentiated by gender in urban Hausa contexts. Keywords: Language ideology, Hausa, Professional women, Kano, Urban sociolinguistics.