Gender Issues In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’S Purple Hibiscus And Nawal El Saadavis Woman At Point Zero
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Gender Issues In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’S Purple Hibiscus And Nawal El Saadavis Woman At Point Zero
Background of the study.
Women serve an important role in nourishing future generations, but the irony is that they are often degraded and dominated based on their gender. Feminism, one of the world’s hottest topics, has yet to be achieved. Feminism in a secular language guarantees women equal rights and position. Unfortunately, women over the world are denied their fundamental rights.
The lady is still classified as a “secondary sex”. Women have been battling for their rights for a long time, and they continue to do so now. The present wave of feminism is seen to have been initiated by two prominent thinkers, Mary Wollstone Craft and John Stuart Mill, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
However, the term feminism was coined by a socialist named Charles Fourier in the nineteenth century. Mary Wollstone is often regarded as the mother of feminism. In her book “A Defence of Women’s Rights,” she contends that education for women is one of the world’s most basic needs. She emphasised that women are more than simply spouses; they contribute to the nation’s development because they are their husbands’ friends.
According to Mary Wollstone Craft, women should have equal rights and position since they are more than simply ornaments or property to be traded in marriage, but a vital member of society. Its primary goal was to raise women’s awareness of their rights through education.
Elaine Showalter, an American feminist, traced the history of feminism and classified it into three periods. She referred to the first phase as “the silent phase” or the feminine phase (1840-1880), in which women were simply battling for basic rights.
The second phase (1880-1920) is known as the “protest phase” of the feminist phase because it was more confrontational, and the women of this period battled for the suffragettes.
They advocated for the right to vote so that their voices could be heard as well. The final phase (1920–present) is self-discovery. This period demanded autonomy.
However, whatever feminism existed in the world, it was all about white women, and third-country women were disregarded. Third-world women recognised that their role was absent from feminism and mobilised to preserve their rights. Alice Walker, a well-known writer, concentrated on the words “feminism” or “sorority” rather than feminism.
According to her, this word represents global feminism, and she feels that only feminism can be realised if all women around the world are treated as sisters. If we follow the history of black feminism, Bell Hooks’ book Is Not I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism is unquestionably a reference. In this book, Hook discusses black feminism and the struggles of black women.
Hooks fights for an end to sexism and racism against women. This book took him seven years to complete. She emphasises in the book that throughout slavery, women faced the majority of injustice and suffering. Not only have black women spoken out in support of their rights, but women all over the world have done the same.
Today, women all across the world, whether European, African, or Asian, have come forward to defend their rights and status under the umbrella name feminism. Philosophers, thinkers, and authors do not fight for women’s rights, but celebrities have recently joined the feminism movement.
Emma Watson, a well-known Hollywood actor, also presented herself and created the #HeForShe initiative, which calls on males to support women’s rights. She is completely opposed to the concept of feminism as anti-masculine. Instead, she encourages males to step out and help women gain equal rights and status. ”
This is the first campaign of its sort at the United Nations. We hope to mobilise as many men and boys as possible to push for change. Mitchell Obama is also a strong personality who contributes to this feminism. Her remarks on women’s independence have become well-known.
Not unexpectedly, African researchers have begun to incorporate gender, gender and violence themes into their gender studies in order to better understand their function in gender relations (Lindsay & Miescher 2003: 1–3). As a result, among other themes, analyses of women writers’ work must investigate gender-based violence and its portrayal in this work.
Gender-based violence is a significant issue in many civilisations, making it a new subject of focus for literary criticism. This study consequently concerns the description of gender-based violence in the Nigerian novel in relation to women’s fiction in general and Adichie’s novels in particular, as well as the role of gender in the propagation of violence. The study investigates how a person’s gender influences gender violence in selected novels.
Gender issues in all discourses are often polarising due to their sensitive nature and the fact that the term gender is frequently used interchangeably with sex. There is a clear distinction between the two names, and professionals have established it. While sex is the biological trait that distinguishes humans as men or women, gender refers to the economic, political, and cultural characteristics and possibilities that come with being a man or a woman (USAID, 2007).
Gender is thus comprised of socially determined roles, behaviours, activities, and characteristics that a particular society believes proper for men and women.
While gender and its accompanying biological functions are genetically programmed, the gender roles and power relations they reflect are social constructs that vary across cultures and across time, making them subject to change.
According to John Macionis and Ken Plummer (2005: 309), gender refers to the social differences and hierarchies between men and women, whereas sex refers to anatomical differences.
A UK Council report titled “Sex in Nigeria in 2012” states that violence against women is not a new issue in Nigeria. According to Nnadi (2012) and Zimmerman (1997), it is strongly based in cultural and traditional norms that are either hidden or allowed as normal behaviour. As a result, violence against women is considered the most common 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) expressed concern about the prevalence of violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse and sexual harassment while working. It is also crucial to note that gender-based violence is committed against everyone, although it mostly impacts women and girls (Jekayinfa, 2011; USAID, 2008).
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