Women in Twentieth-Century Africa

Explores the paradoxical image of African women as exceptionally oppressed, but also as strong, resourceful and rebellious.

Iris Berger (Author)

9780521741217, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 April 2016

244 pages, 7 b/w illus. 3 maps
23.1 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.35 kg

'… not only is [Iris Berger's] approach to this complex and dynamic subject refreshingly novel, but she also taps into the most recent secondary materials available on the subject to write an informative book.' Hassoum Ceesay, African Studies Quarterly

During a turbulent colonial and postcolonial century, African women struggled to control their own marital, sexual and economic lives and to gain a significant voice in local and national politics. This book introduces many remarkable women, who organized religious and political movements, fought in anti-colonial wars, ran away to escape arranged marriages, and during the 1990s began successful campaigns for gender parity in national legislatures. The book also explores the apparent paradox in the conflicting images of African women - as singularly oppressed and dominated by men, but also as strong, resourceful, and willing to challenge governments and local traditions to protect themselves and their families. Understanding the tension between women's power and their oppression, between their strength and their vulnerability, offers a new lens for understanding the relationship between the state and society in the twentieth century.

Introduction
1. Colonizing African families
2. Confrontation and adaptation
3. Domesticity and modernization
4. Mothers of nationalism
5. The struggle continues
6. 'Messengers of a new design': marriage, family and sexuality
7. Women's rights: the second decolonization?
8. Empowerment and inequality in a new global age
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], African history [HBJH]