Siriyakorn Tongveeraprasert

1209

Ms. Laurin Werner

December 4, 2018

Word counts: 1583

The Effects of Gender Inequality in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Nowadays, there is still a wide gap in gender inequality due to each person’s unequal

treatment, recognition based on their gender; a result of the disparity in socially constructed gender

characters. In our society, many people see women as a frail soul; opposite to what people identify

men as a powerful person.There are many differences ways for men and women to explicit their

emotions or feelings. From that, men’s likes to present stronger and anger actions, emotions

whereas women’s often display gentle feelings. Generally, gender inequality is mostly shown

within all kinds of entertainments such as books, movies and etc; this is to make a comparison to

what’s actual happens to reality. For example, as shown in Things Fall Apart written by Chinua

Achebe, he indicates gender inequality by depicts Okonkwo’s unfavourable perspective towards

women.

Throughout the novel, gender inequality seems to occur a lot in the book. In the modern

world, many people like to judge people from their appearance or when they first saw them. One

of the big problems is that women always get looked down by men, however, they not only did

that to women, but they also did with men’s themselves as well. To start off with, one of the main

character; Okonkwo, he was described as a person who likes to express pessimistic feelings and

actions toward other characters. Within the book, his personality against the contradict gender is

clearly to be seen, but it doesn’t means that we will know what exactly he feel at that time as he
doesn’t like shows his emotions out. According to the book page 26, Achebe’s said “ Without

looking at the man he had said: “This meeting is for men.” The man who contradicted him had no

titles. That was why Okonkwo had called him a woman.” After reading this quote, it means that

no matter what gender a people is Okonkwo’s always called the others man who is weaker than

him as a woman. He said like that because he thinks that a man from his view is not like him, so

he decided to call a woman instead, as he also thinks that the men are not meet his expectations

and capability. This shows gender inequality by talking about how Okonkwo’s define a word

“men”. According to that, by describing about men capability, he wanted a high quality men which

means that that man doesn’t suit a word “men”, so it might be a reason for Okonkwo to called him

“women”. Within the meeting, while Okonkwo’s speaking and trying to make a deprived man be

ashamed, everyone seems to agree with him because no one is trying to help or speak up for him.

This is clearly seen that Umuofia villagers have the same stereotypes as Okonkwo and already

likes the way it is which means that they didn’t want to listen to others opinions except for someone

that has the same thought like them. Not just only that, even with Ojiugo, Okonkwo’s third and

youngest wife he is trying to beat her as stated “ He walked back into his obi to await Ojiugo’s

return. The actions took place during the Week of Peace, which written as “Okonkwo was

provoked to justifiable anger by his young wife, Ojiugo, because she went to “plait her hair.” (

Achebe, p.29) After all, she went out for a long period of time and doesn’t come back preparing a

meal for Okonkwo, but after she got back, he has done negative reactions with cruelty towards

her. And when she returned he beat her very heavily. This is the reminder of what Okonkwo’s

thought that man should be strong and have the power to control over others with both the same

and different genders; which means that even though that person is a man or women Okonkwo’s

would still decided to use his power to demand others.

 The differentiation of treatments between male and female served as a major role in society

nowadays. People in the world today have a terrible perspective towards women than usual.

Women are treated like a slave to serve what their parent's needs and wants, which is, later on, will

be commanded by their husbands. At this point, it is also told within the novel name Things Fall

Apart which created a bigger image of how male and female treated. The connection between

Things Fall Apart and modern society by describing what’s really happening to nowadays, which

is when men look down on women that girls are weak and handle with them like they are a labours.

For example, “there were many women, but they looked on from the fringe like outsiders ”

(Achebe, p.87). This happens during the traditional judicial hearings. It is clearly seen that

everyone who is considered as women will all be excluded which everyone would ignore them

and said to them that this is only for men. From that event, none of the women has a chance to

speak or be able to judge the trails; even it is when a woman is the one with a complaint to posture.

Nonetheless, within Umuofia tradition; there is a law that makes a woman be adverse if compare

to a man as stated that “ The law of Umuofia is that if a woman runs away from her husband her

bride-price is returned. This is just to say that, the woman is treated likes a piece of man’s property

that is used to exchange from man to man; which also worth as a money. Okonkwo’s perspective

not only toward the others clan members but also with his daughter, Ezinma as well. Even she is

Okonkwo’s favourite child, he still has a negative attitude towards her. This is to be seen on page

66, Achebe said “ If Ezinma had been a boy I would have been happier. She has the right spirit”

Through the quote, it seems to in a happy tone, but does it actually positive opinion? What

Okonkwo means by this quote is that right now he is looking after and taking care of her pretty

well, but if she was a boy, he would have been treated him differently and it would make him feel

happier. This means that he still chooses a man to comes first and put woman aside or considered
women at last. As a result, it's clearly seen that people would choose the man to be privileged not

only in the novel but in today’s society as well. For instance in today’s world, in terms of politics

men’s the only sex that can participate in sharing the ideas as well as the leader of the family or

they can even work outside which doesn’t happen to women. However, the only thing that

women’s can do is pregnant which means to be a mother.

Men and women were born differently, so it doesn’t strange that they would express

their feelings differently and also have a contrast methods to cope whenever there is a situation.

For example of the dissimilar of men’s and women’s reactions, when talking about heart broken,

most of the time men would not cry right away, but women does. In accordance with Mbanta

village, when Okonkwo was told to go back to his motherland; described as “But when there are

sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you. She

is buried there. And that is why we say that mother is supreme” (Achebe, p.134). This quote is

basically explain why many people should support women, as he is identified to make a deeper

discussion on how valuable women are. A word “supreme” is being used because it tells how

significance and powerful women played in their role in both the clan and in real life. As the

internet is being used productively and effectively, many people then used it to be a tool to solve

the problem of gender inequality so perfectly. One of the methods that could be done is that “ to

make education about gender to be more sensitive” (Leach, 2016). This is helpful because, if

people are educated more about gender carefully and thoughtfully, they would understand more

about women’s and men’s rights. People would be able to solve the problems and also be able to

make an equal society, as they have learnt more about women, so they would be able to deal with

the problems and find a better solution. For the last solution, it is to help men and women to live

together happily by talking about why should all be feminist? This is not only to protect women,
but it does protect men as well, to be more precise, this talk will also clarify about why men think

that they have more power and have to control men, and also distinguish about the female side.

According to the Ted Talk “A feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there's a problem with

gender as it is today, and we must fix it. We must do better" (Adichie, 28.58 mins). After reading

the quote, people who will be a feminist whether man or woman, they should be able to overcome

the problems and be able to make it better in the future. This means that man and woman should

help each other in order to live a peaceful and useful life. No matter little or enormous problems it

is that related directly to the woman, people shouldn’t criticise only on a woman, but should help

them to fix the problems and make them a better person in the future.

To conclude, gender inequality is a world biggest problems as it faced by many countries.

This is often took place in both reality and a novel in order to compare the differences between the

unequal treatments in a novel to reality. In our real life, as mentioned earlier that women are treated

violently and doesn’t have the rights to speak up or have their voice to be heard. Women should

have their own rights in order to be able to do whatever they want without forcing or telling by the

others. People should also admire women, whenever they have done something or helping others;

not just only praise men. As time flies, more people recognize how important a female is, so they

use social media to protect women more than in the past. Lastly, whatever sex you are, everyone

should have the same attentions and we should always respect each other in order to live happily

in the future.
 References

Achebe, C. (1959), Things fall apart. New York, New York: Penguin Books.

Adichie, C. N. (2012, December) Transcript of "We should all be feminists". Retrieved from

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists/tran

script?language=en#t-489560

Leach, A. (2016, March 14). 12 steps to achieve gender equality in our lifetimes. Retrieved from

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-

network/2016/mar/14/gender-equality-women-girls-rights-education-empowerment-

politics