Women Oppressing Women - An Intersectional Reading of Women Authors in Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines women to women discrimination and oppression in the selected texts of three Nigerian female writers: Zulu Sofola, Buchi Emecheta and Bunmi Julius-Adeoye. Women sometimes, have been known to discriminate and/or oppress their fellow women in different spheres of life and this research highlights it by using intersectionality as a theoretical framework to reveal that women can discriminate and oppress other women via certain categories like age/generation, social class/status, educational achievement, ethnicity and race. I discuss the different ways that women oppress other women with emphasis on the narrative of physical and psychological violence and oppression perpetuated against women by fellow women. As the selected works for study reflect current realities, especially in relation to several parts of Nigeria, I highlight the issues commonly found in different areas of the country like parents investing in the education of male children over the girl child as it is a common understanding that women have little need of western education since she will end up in her husband’s house, taking care of her children. A common occurrence in the texts analysed is that while there are some women characters who exist to oppress other women/girls, there are also women who are placed in positions to support downtrodden women. This intensifies the fact that growth can only occur when women uplift one another.