Feminism and "Things Fall Apart"

The men of "Things Fall Apart" come off as very sexist individuals.  At least, to people like us they do.  In the African world demonstrated in this novel by Achebe, sexism is the norm.  As stated by the narrator, "No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man."  Males are the dominant gender in the novel, with females primarily serving to feed the family and produce children.  This display of sexism is typical of basically every culture at one point in time.  Even America was once this way - although not to the extent of shooting at wives or beating them like it's nothing - with women playing the roles of stay-at-home moms who are usually found in the kitchen.  In my essay, I would like to discuss the role of women in novel and how they compare to women in other cultures, both in the past and present.

For example, having a girl child is not desired in Umuofia.  This is similar to the views regarding female babies in China.  In China, a surprisingly large amount of female children are given away or even killed.  It is just something that is simply not desired.  In Umuofia, the female children are merely tolerated, however.  Okonkwo even wishes that one of his children, a girl, would have been male.

The way that women are treated in the novel is also reminiscent of real life.  All three of Okonkwo's wives are beaten and reprimanded.  If a woman does not fulfill her duties, she will be beaten.  This is not unlike reality.  Beating women unfortunately still occurs today, though it was more prevalent in the past. The name of the clothing piece "wife beater" had to have come from somewhere.  This term stemmed from popular culture in America.  But it's not just popular culture that such things happen.  Using examples from other cultures, I would like to use the femininity in "Things Fall Apart" and compare it with real-world examples.