Gender Roles In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Every culture has different expectations when it comes to gender roles in Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart, wrote about the Ibo culture and their lifestyle for most of the book to reflect the way they lived, so we could understand the way of thinking and the culture. If the expectations of women are not met there are consequences, at least Okonkwo lived by that. The man is the leader of the household and protects and provides for his family.

The way femininty and masculinity are defined, are by the roles women have in the community, how marriages are arranged and family life is organized, and how the extended family supports Okonkwo.

The role of women in the Ibo community is to basically be a servant. The one thing they are cherished for is bringing life into the world, and the more healthy kids the better. They are expected to cook everyday for their husband and children.

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Women are expected to stay home and care for the children. Men and women both grow crops but women grow “women crops” such as cocoa yams and beans, and men grow yams, which are of great importance. According to Chinua Achebe, “Yams stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed”. A man’s role in the family was to provide for them. Men are allowed to beat their wives except for one week out of the year called “peace week”.

Women were fearful of their husbands, “Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper”. He beat his youngest wife for not having dinner on the table, when she instead went to get her hair done.

Family is very important to the Ibo culture, and for them that starts with marriage. Men are expected to have many wives. The more wives they attain, the higher their social status, because it shows they have the money to support them along with the children. However, women are only allowed to have one husband. The woman’s family chooses the suitor she is required to marry, so technically the family could take into consideration the wishes of the bride. Usually the families get together to discuss the details of the marriage. The suitor would usually bring gifts such as palm wine and kola nuts, and the bride’s family would offer a payment to the groom’s family, which is called the bride-price.The way that their family is organized is that the women all have their different huts, while Okonkwo has his own. They prepare him meals everyday and bring them to his hut.

Extended family also plays an important role of life in the culture. When Okonkwo was exiled from Umofia from killing a clansman he took his whole family to his motherland, which is where his mother’s side of the family resides. When he arrived, he met his uncle Uchendu and he took them in and gave them a place to stay, he also gave them plots of land to start farming on. Having to start over his life and his farming brought out his more feminine side. The mother’s family, which he looked down on, are called his mother’s kinsman. The family took him in and accompanied him for the seven years he was exiled. Okonkwo went from the highest of the hierarchy, to the lowest and Uchendu humbled him.

Chinua Achebe did a great job on contrasting the way a normal couple would live by reflecting what the women do for their family, how marriage and the family structure is set up, and by showing the role of the extended family. In conclusion, the Ibo culture has a different way of doing things, just as any other culture. The women and men have strict day to day roles which are required of them. They have no complaints about their ways, because it is simply what they are accustomed to.