Gender essentialism in Buchi Emecheta s The joys of motherhood

Abstract

This study investigates the various ways in which the black woman is subjugated in Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood. It contends that, in spite of this multiple subalternity, the woman can assert herself through redefinition. The dissertation adds that the novelist suggests the possibility for this redefined woman to live complementarily with the man in an utopic society. The Gender and Womanist Theories have been used as the work's conceptual framework. While practices such as gender role distribution, gender categorization and mis/representation are the strategies used by patriarchy to oppress the woman the oppression of black men and the fragmentation of black families pose as colonial practices that worsens the black woman's lot. The study's conclusion is that the specificity of the African woman's plight necessitates solutions that are specific to her hence the relevance of Emecheta's novel as a complementary text in Cameroonian secondary schools to create awareness in young Cameroonians