1 Department of English studies, faculty of art, Adekunle Ajasin university, Akungba Akoko, Ondo state, Nigeria.
2 Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, faculty of arts, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria.
3 Department of English and Literary studies, faculty of arts, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Oyo State, Nigeria.
4 Department of Social work, faculty of social science, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.
5 Department of History and Diplomacy, faculty of arts, Amassoma University, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
6 Department of Mass Communication, faculty of Business and communication, The Polytechnic Ibadan (CEC), Oyo State, Nigeria.
7 Department of Linguistics/Igbo, faculty of Humanities, Imo State University Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2024, 23(01), 1845-1868
Received on 05 June 2024; revised on 17 July 2024; accepted on 19 July 2024
This research focuses on gender stereotypes in selected African literary text. The way in which some African writers view gender inequalities and stereotypes in their characters is explored. We will also be able to see who is involved and affected by these gender inequalities and how. What determines beliefs about the ability and appropriate role of women? An overwhelming majority of men and women born early in the 20th century thought women should not work; a majority now believes that work is appropriate for both genders. Betty Friedan (1963) postulated that beliefs about gender were formed by consumer goods producers, but a simple model suggests that such firms would only have the incentive to supply error, when mass persuasion is cheap, when their products complement women’s time in the household, and when individual producers have significant market power (1). Such conditions seem unlikely to be universal, or even common, but gender stereotypes have a long history.
To explain that history, we turn to a second model where parents perpetuate beliefs out of a desire to encourage the production of grandchildren. Undersupply of female education will encourage daughters’ fertility, directly by reducing the opportunity cost of their time and indirectly by leading daughters to believe that they are less capable. Children will be particularly susceptible to persuasion if they overestimate their parents’ altruism toward themselves. The supply of persuasion will diminish if women work before childbearing, which may explain why gender-related beliefs changed radically among generations born in the 1940s.
Gender stereotypes; Polygamy; Nigerian literature; Women's empowerment; Social norms; Cultural critique.
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Bukola Jane David, David Opeyemi Adebayo, Monday Florence Anabel, Zariat Yetunde Ayoade, Obianwa Faith Ogechi, Dike Ndidi Pauline, Olanase Sarah Oluwadamilola and Akabuogu Elochukwu Lynda. Gender stereotypes in Lola Shoneyin’s the secret lives of baba Segi’s wives. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2024, 23(1), 1845 -1868. Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2024.23.1.2170