Women in Umuofia

Being a woman in Umuofia would be awful. America offers women an ample amount of opportunities to the point that women are starting to dominate the work force, family, and school community. But in Umuofia that would be quite unheard of. Umuofia women were subordinate to men entirely. On page 23 it discusses the differences between a good man's crop and the weak crop of the women. This distinction at the beginning of the novel set up the entire them of the novel that women were the weakest members of the tribe and that there were thick lines between what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. Okonkwo was embarrassed of his father because his father acted as a "woman" by not receiving a great title in the clan, she he didn't appreciate his son when he left with the missionaries and considered him a weak woman, and he considered his clan weak women when they conformed to the missionaries or even allowed the missionaries to inhabit the land. Whenever Okonkwo talked about women it was always negative, "And so he was always happy w hen he heard him grumbling about women. That showed that in time he would be able to control his women-folk. No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule this women and his children (especially the women) he was not really a man," (pg. 53).

I found it interesting though, that the women were ones that the gods talked through, "Anyone seeing Chielo in ordinary life would hardly believes she was the same person who prophesied when the spirit of Agbala was upon her," (pg. 49). Enzimna was carried away by a female prophet to the cave and Okonkwo had to submit to her instructions as well as every other male in the clan. That was only because of the spirit of gods that were apparently in the women during that time. Had it been any other time, the women would still be considered under men.