Womanhood In Reframing Contemporary Africa

In Western societies, gender has always played a significant role. Having gender play a role in society creates gender inequality, which primarily affects women. From the time that the United States was colonized through the Second World War, women were restricted to very “traditional” roles, primarily serving as mothers, housekeepers, teachers, and occasionally nurses. This history of separation between created a strain, and the different waves of feminism played a part in expanding the role of women in Western society over that time. The role that women plays in African societies varies from Western norms, but post-colonial western influence created a new standard of gender discourse that permeated into African culture and changed the way …show more content…
Sundal notes that she first believed that strong women were those who could “compete on any keel with any man,” (2010, p. 308). This conviction led her to eventually believe that being a strong woman meant behaving “like a man,” (2010, p. 308). This approach to feminism is problematic for several reasons. First, using the word “any man” implies that each and every man is of higher authority than all women. Additionally, saying the goal is behaving “like a man” creates a standard “norm” for both genders to act …show more content…
Even though beliefs are often developed by personal feelings, certain ideas and standards create a pattern of thinking that are problematic and regressive. Western cultures and patriarchal systems have played a crucial role in how African cultures perceive gender and womanhood. Sundal states her beliefs are rooted in “historical patterns that had shaped feminist thought before me,” (2010, p. 308). Specifically, this can be credited in part to the masculinization of god and god figures (Sundal, 2010, p. 309). The United States’ narratives of feminism are rooted on liberation and expression, and that has become the standard for every other country to mold themselves after which every country molds itself (Sundal, 2010, p. 310). That standard does not necessarily serve as a one-size-fits-all, even though it sometimes forced to be. This can be problematic for women, particularly those who live in developing countries. Catherine Haronis, in her article “Re-Presenting Feminisms: Past, Present, and Future” notes that:
Poor women and women of color, whose goals and strategies often differ from those of middle- and upper-class white feminists, remain marginalized in wave rhetoric, where attention is focused on white women's suffrage in the late nineteenth century and white women's right to equal opportunity in the 1960s and 1970s (2008, p.