Interrogating Gender Injustices in Selected Nigerian Fictions

Ibanga, Grace Itoro

doi:10.21608/misj.2024.308491.1063

Interrogating Gender Injustices in Selected Nigerian Fictions

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Grace Itoro Ibanga

Department of English, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria

10.21608/misj.2024.308491.1063

Abstract

This Paper explores gender dichotomies in fiction and real life through gender politics, patriarchy, and irony, focusing on Abi Dare’s The Girl with the Louding Voice (2020) and Chimamanda Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017). The study examines how male hegemony perpetuates cultural discrimination against women in the above named texts, using qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate that women are crucial to the family and society, and their empowerment through education is essential for personal autonomy, free from adult interference. The study highlights that patriarchy enforces social injustices against women through forced marriage and childbearing. Both authors call for institutional integrity to support women's rights and promote a healthy society. Additionally, the study reveals that some influential women contribute to the oppression of other women, causing unnecessary sufferings. It concludes with recommendations for addressing these issues: female children should not be coerced into marriage without economic empowerment; Nigerian culture should eliminate gender-based inequalities; and effective mentorship should be provided to guide and liberate young women from exploitation and servitude.

Keywords

Full Text

Grace Itoro Ibanga PhD

teaches Gender Studies and Feminist Aesthetics; The English Novel Tradition: From the Eighteenth till date; The African Literature; Modern British Poetry, and other Literature related courses, in the Department of English in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. She completed her doctoral research on “Female Archetypes in the fiction of Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo within the context of Africa’s Patriarchy” in 2019 in her Department. Her research areas incorporate all the forms of African Literature, especially fiction. She has published quality researches in both Local and International Academic Journals of high reputation.

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