Background of the study
Woman plays a vital role in feeding future generations, but the irony is that the woman is mainly degraded and dominated on the basis of sex. Feminism, which is one of the hottest topics in the world, has still not been achieved. Feminism in a secular language gives women equal rights and status. Unfortunately, women around the world are deprived of their basic rights. The woman is still considered a “secondary sex”. The fight for women’s rights is not new and women have been fighting for this for a very long time and it continues today. The current wave of feminism is considered to have been launched by two key philosophers, namely. Mary Wollstone Craft and John Stuart Mill in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But the term feminism was first used by a socialist Charles Fourier in the 19th century. Mary Wollstone is often considered the mother of feminism. In her book entitled “A defense of women’s rights”, she argues that the education of women is one of the fundamental requirements of the world. She emphasized that women are not just wives, but help to build the nation because they are the companions of their husbands. According to Mary Wollstone Craft, women should enjoy equal rights and status because they are not just ornaments or merchandise that must be traded in marriage, but rather a very important part of society. And its main purpose was to sensitize women to education so that they are well aware of their rights.
Elaine Showalter, an American feminist traced the history of feminism and divided it into three phases. She called the first phase “the silent phase” or the female phase (1840-1880), where women were only dumb and fighting only for fundamental rights. The second phase (1880-1920) is called the “protest phase” of the feminist phase, which was more aggressive and the women of this phase fought for the suffragettes. They called for the right to vote so that their voice was heard as well. The last phase (1920 to the present day) is the self-discovery phase. This phase required autonomy.
But whatever feminism in the world, everything was about white ladies and third world women were ignored. Third world women realized that their role was absent from feminism and also mobilized to defend their rights. Alice Walker, a well-known writer, focused on the word “feminism” or “sorority” instead of feminism. According to her, this word denotes the feminism of the world and believes that if we consider all the women of the world as sisters, then only feminism can be realized. If we retrace the history of black feminism, Bell Hooks’ book Is not I a Woman? : Black women and feminism is definitely a reference. In this book, Hook’s talks about black feminism and the struggle of black women. Hooks advocates for ending sexism and racism against women. This book took him 7 years to complete it. She explains in the book that women during slavery suffered most of the discrimination and suffering. Not only blacks, but women around the world have come forward to make their voices heard in favor of rights.
Today, women all over the world, be they European, African or Asian, all come forward to defend their rights and status under the generic term feminism. Philosophers, thinkers or writers do not fight for women’s rights, but today even celebrities have come forward to contribute to this wave of feminism. Emma Watson, a famous Hollywood star, also introduced herself and she launched a #HeForShe campaign in which she forces men to be on the women’s side to defend their rights. She is totally opposed to the definition of feminism to be anti-masculine. Instead, she calls on men to come forward and help women achieve equal rights and status. “This is the first campaign of its kind at the UN. We want to try to mobilize as many men and boys as possible to advocate for change. Even Mitchell Obama is also a very strong personality who contributes to this feminism. Her speeches are often very famous about the emancipation of women.
Not surprisingly, African scholars have now begun to include the concepts of gender, gender and violence in their gender studies to understand their role in gender relations (Lindsay & Miescher 2003: 1- 3). Therefore, in analyzes of the work of women writers, among other topics, it is necessary to explore gender-based violence and its portrayal in this work. This is because gender-based violence is a serious problem in many societies today and constitutes a new area of investigation for literary criticism. This study therefore questions the description of gender-based violence in the Nigerian novel in reference to the fiction of women in general and Adichie’s novels in particular and the role of gender in the spread of violence. The study explores how a person’s gender contributes to gender violence in selected novels.
Gender issues in each discourse are often divisive because of its sensitive nature and the fact that the term gender is often used interchangeably with sex. There is a clear dichotomy between the two terms and specialists have since established the difference between them. While the term sex is the biological characteristic that defines human beings as a woman or a man, gender is the economic, political and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being a man or a woman (USAID, 2007). Gender is therefore made up of socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. While gender and its associated biological functions are genetically programmed, the gender roles and power relations they reflect are social constructs, they vary from one culture to another and over time, and so are open to change. While sex refers to the anatomical difference between man and woman, gender refers to the social aspect of differences and hierarchies between men and women‖ (John Macionis & Ken Plummer, 2005: 309). ).
A UK Council report titled “Sex in Nigeria in 2012” concludes that violence against women is not a new problem in Nigeria. On the contrary, it is deeply rooted in many cultural and traditional values that are considered normal behavior or remain hidden or tacitly tolerated (Nnadi, 2012, Zimmerman, 1997). As a result, violence against women is perceived as the most widespread violation of human rights (UN Secretary General, 2009, Heise et al., 2002). In 1998, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination (CEDAW) raised concerns about the prevalence of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence and sexual harassment at the scene working. It is also important to point out that gender-based violence is practiced against everyone, but that it mainly affects women and girls (Jekayinfa, 2011, USAID, 2008).
1.2 Statement of the problem
The most dangerous is the inability of many Africans to separate African culture from the systems that oppress the freedoms of African women. It is this inability to see a future where African culture is not tinged with patriarchal shades that poses the greatest threat to the movement of black consciousness. Then, Orabueze (114) argued that it was necessary to dismantle what it means to be African and to look more closely at the customs that are only dishes and what defines our culture. My hope is to understand patriarchy, African culture and the need to separate the two. However, according to Opara, Chioma (2008), patriarchy is a social formation in which the male sex plays a dominant role in the collective social life.
Vasilyeva Ayala argues that “women as a group are supposed to share a characteristic trait, experience, condition or common criterion that defines their gender and the possession of certain persons as women (as opposed to men, for example)”. Ayala added that all women are considered different from all men in this regard (or respects). For example, MacKinnon thought that being treated in a sexually objectifying way is the common condition that defines the gender of women and what women and women share. All women differ from all men in this regard. In addition, highlighting females that are not sexually objectified does not provide a counterexample to the sight of MacKinnon. To be objectified sexually is constitutive of being a woman; a woman who escapes sexual objectification, then, would not count as a woman. (732).
1.3 Aim and objectives of study
The aim of this study is to describe the existence of gender issues in the Nigerian novel and its depiction in Nawal el Saadawi’s woman at point zero and Chimamanda Adichie‘s purple hibiscus. This research is premised on the fact that literature is a chronicler of society through which societal issues are analysed with a view to making the society better.
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