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- Title
Patriarchy and Women Plight in Africa: The Consequences of Living in Passivity.
- Authors
Okafor, Samuel O.
- Abstract
Patriarchy and subjugation of women in many societies in Africa seems to be endogenic with structural origin before the industrial revolution. It appears that this has made it more or less a conventional orthodox order to see women as subordinates or second class citizens, as such, relegating them to the background using language, family and religious structure and by extension, modern social structure. From the pages of anthropological data, patriarchy and gender equality have existed as potential opportunity for whoever was interested in activating them into living phenomenon. Due to the destabilization of the small scale societies by the colonialists and empire builders, patriarchy was activated against gender equality making women to appear as subordinate and commercial article. Having been unconsciously placed in the social structure as opposite of superior, they now live at the mercy of the men in the hierarchy of social structure. Following the industrial and academic revolution concurrently, door for self and group liberation was opened, which until now many societies outside Africa have used to fight women rights abuse and structurally-induced subjugation. However, among the African women, things seem to be in the order of the ancient patriarchy that permanently reduced them to properties of men and the social system without value for their dignity and right for self- determination. The above socially-induced anomaly is what necessitated the present work to x-ray the structurally induced subordination position of women in African society especially in the current historical epoch, relying on the principles of structuration theory by Giddens while capturing the indices of self-victimization, ignorance and unseen reinforcement of the age long social problem. This paper also juxtaposes self-reflection of African women in the light of the debate among feminists.
- Subjects
AFRICA; PATRIARCHY; AFRICANS; SOCIAL structure; SEX discrimination against women; X-rays; SOCIAL problems
- Publication
Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology, 2020, Vol 17, Issue 2, p53
- ISSN
1819-8465
- Publication type
Article