NIGERIA AS A SOCIETY- GENDER INEQUALITY AND DISCRIMINATION. BEING A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE 1(ONE)

It is scientifically proved that a woman is the gender which produces eggs and has XX chromosomes while the man possesses the XY chromosomes the X which he got from his mother but all the years a fact has been averted, women have been led to believe in Nigeria that they determine the sex of the child and that is why you see a learned lady having three female children and still going for more children till she gets a male child for her husband that will bear the family name as they say.
 
WHY DO WOMEN DO THIS?     
Due to fear that has been instilled in them since the ancient days. Thousands of years ago, power was gained through violence and brutality. The kings and the Emperors have to be the most powerful to remain in power and this force used by them is felt most by the woman. The woman had nothing, she had no respect, no power but however there is a weaknesses that man has which he seeks from women - "his insatiable desire for sex" - but then when he gets it from her, he feels he's in  again. The woman was seen as an object, a decoration, she was a tool in the hands of man, she was not a woman, she was a SLAVE. And even though we are trying to act all strong, that fear still exists in a way in this millennium age "the need to have a male child".
It has also been proved scientifically that the sex of the baby is determined by whether the male sperm that fertilizes the egg is carrying another X or Y, the man releases both the X and Y and the one that gets to the egg first, the faster out of the two determines the gender of the baby, that is why it's advisable for men that's insisting on a male child to start trying a high protein diet.             Now, my first poser is not why are we blamed? it is why are we accepting the blame? why are we putting the blame on ourselves of which the blame does not even exist. Why are you letting any man say you are cursed for not having a male child for him when obviously it's him. A female child is precious and those who have her should handle her with care just like a gem. So why does it seem that the male child is preferred to the female one and why are we not standing up for ourselves?
The society perceives us as the weak gender, the society perceives us as the sensitive one, the society perceives us as the vulnerable one. Let's take a peep at the olden days, it was always said that a woman's place is in the kitchen and our grandmothers accepted it that way but are we accepting it too?. I have always heard a statement that "a woman does not have what it takes to be a man" but the question in that statement is that "does a man know what it takes to be a woman?". That question has been left hanging all over the years but now is the time for us to start asking ourselves, start asking the men if they know what it takes to be us?. We women are the cause of our issues. Looking at the percentage of women who think that a husband is justified in hitting his wife under certain circumstances is as high as 56% in Nigeria and not only in Nigeria, in Afghanistan and Jordan we have 90% which is like the whole of them and it goes like that all over the world.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.                                   
I see violence against women as a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women and that is why I mentioned fear from the beginning. Why do we accept being violated?, why do we keep silence?, what are we doing to help ourselves?. Violence against women have always been a wide spread problem, fueled especially outside the west and if our leaders are not doing much about it, I feel we should rise up and fight for ourselves. We don't have to be together in a place, each of us should fight individually wherever we are for our rights. One of the unfortunate traits of the human nature is categorizing people and this is evident in the way women are categorized. The society limits them. They say "that kind of woman".
So, what is being a woman of substance all about?.. Make sure you are alert because the second part is on its way .. Thank you all for the opportunity.

Written by                                        
IJIETEMI ADEOLA derb_eryl, a part two student of Obafemi Awolowo University and female emancipation enthusiast.