Exploring the Problem of Gender Inequality and Rethinking Emancipation: Theology, Feminism and Cultural Critique in Response to the Plight of Igbo Women

This project aims at addressing theologically the current patriarchal structures in Igbo society of southeast Nigeria that have continued to facilitate the oppression of women. It begins by situating Igbo women within the complex web of power structure, status/role acquisition or ascription, as well as the intricacies of gender imbalance within the society.One of the basic hypotheses of the work is that the intrusion of patriarchal articulations of gender relations from the West into the society chiefly through colonialism and Christianity, as well as androcentric gender imbalance within Igbo tradition and culture have, in one way or another, contributed to either causing or reinforcing Igbo women's oppression. There is the conviction that the current patriarchal structures in the society feed on myths of women inferiority and skewed understanding ofthe human person by which men are portrayed as normatively human. In order to chart a way forward, thus bringing a lasting solution to this alltoo real a problem, this research pursues a theological-anthropologicalinvestigation that is committed to a critical and constructive engagement with secular feminist understanding of the human person as well as the Igbo traditional anthropology. Through it, it is able to propose a better way of integrating into the society the values of equality, mutual respect and relationality in line with the people's religio-cultural sensibility.status: publishe