Where Yoruba women stand now: near-total exclusion from elected office alongside high literacy and professional attainment, the market titles absorbed into party politics, the diaspora, and the feminist scholarship Yoruba women have produced.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Di position of Yoruba women today get one strong contradiction wey clear well well, to di point say any story wey try settle am too simply dey misrepresent am. For side of education, literacy, work for professional level and business matter, women for Yoruba southwest dey among di people wey stand well pass for Nigeria, and dem even dey try well when you compare dem with plenty parts of di continent. But for representation for elected office, Nigeria dey rank among di worst countries for di whole world, and di way things dey go since 1999 dey go down instead of to dey go up.
Society wey give women constitutional office before colonial rule, and wey their women organize di anti-colonial mass movement wey work pass for di country, now almost no dey elect dem at all. Na dis fact we need to explain, and dis document dey show wetin dem record first before e bring out di different explanations wey dey ground.
After di 2023 general elections, women hold 3 out of 109 Senate seats, wey be 2.7 per cent, and 17 out of 360 House of Representatives seats, wey be 4.7 per cent, wey mean say na 20 out of 469 seats for di National Assembly, or 4.2 per cent . If you compare am with di Ninth Assembly wey just finish, na 8 women dey di Senate at 7.3 per cent and 13 for House at 3.6 per cent, total of 21 seats and 4.5 per cent overall .
Two things make am bad pass as di headline show.
Di Senate number don drop go back to wetin e be when Nigeria return to democracy for 1999, after seven election cycles . No progress dey over time.
And for di March 2023 state elections, dem no elect any woman at all into di Houses of Assembly for 15 out of di 36 states of Nigeria .
Di 4.2 per cent wey Nigeria get dey below di African lower-chamber average wey be around 8.6 per cent and e dey far below di global average . Who contest sef na part of di matter: na only about 9 to 10 per cent of candidates be women for 2023 .
Di southwest dey perform better pass di north on top most gender indicators, but di National Assembly figures na for di whole country and dis corpus no get any verified breakdown for Yoruba states to give. Instead make we guess am, dem just state di gap as e be.
Plenty explanations dey inside Nigerian political science literature and none of dem complete on its own.
Party gatekeeping and di cost of primaries. Party nomination for Nigeria dey run on top money and control of delegate structures. Women no dey many among candidates before voters even get chance to reject dem, wey show say di blockage dey start from primary instead of di main election.
Di winner-take-all single-member constituency. Nigeria no get reserved seats, no quota, and no proportional element, so no system dey to turn general support into seats. Proposals for reserved seats don fail many times for National Assembly.
Di removal of di parallel structure. Na dis be di historical explanation and e belong specifically to dis corpus. Precolonial political power of Yoruba women bin dey run through separate channel: one office wey represent women as group, with its own base inside market. Indirect rule scatter dat channel and di post-colonial state no bring am back, so dem push women political participation enter one competitive individual electoral system wey women constituency no get any institutional voice at all. Di Abẹ́òkúta Women's Union for di 1940s na di last mass mobilisation wey use dat old logic, of women organizing as women to demand things from government, and e work. Nothing since dat time don fit repeat am. Check Women's Political Offices and Colonial Encounter and Women's Resistance.
Di case today wey teach lesson pass na wetin happen to di market title.
Di succession of Lagos market leadership run from Alimọtù Pelewura, wey lead di Lagos Market Women's Association through di tax and price-control fight for 1930s and 1940s, to Chief Abibatu Mogaji, wey succeed am as Ìyálọ́jà and President-General of di Association of Nigerian Market Men and Women and hold di position reach when she die for 2013 at ninety-six, to her granddaughter Folashade Tinubu-Ojo .
Make we state di family relations clear, because na dem be di main point of di criticism. Abibatu Mogaji na di mama of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, wey be Governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 and President of Nigeria from 2023. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo na im daughter . Di office pass from di president mama go to di president daughter.
Di criticisms inside Nigerian public debate na say di succession na nepotism, say di person wey hold am no reach di age and market experience wey di position historically need, say di way di title expand from Ìyálọ́jà of Lagos to national Ìyálọ́jà-General no get any constitutional or traditional basis and no clear authority approve am, and say di structure dey work as mobilisation machine for one political family among constituency wey big well well and dey important for election . Di attempt to extend di title enter Edo State for 2024 and 2025 bring protest from market women there and objection from Benin palace, on top grounds say di title no be part of Benin structure, say di selection process no clear, and say di whole thing na politics .
Di position of di corpus na say dis tins na criticisms wey pipo report for Nigerian public debate, no be established findings, and na so dem label dem. Wetin no dey under dispute na di structural point. Di Ìyálóde and Ìyálọ́jà na positions wey person dey achieve based on independent economic base, and dem dey answer to di women wey produce dat base. Di title of today na confer dem dey confer am, and na inside political system dem dey confer am. When office wey use to represent women give power turn to office wey power dey use reach women, di direction don reverse. Dat na di single most important tin to understand about how women titles take survive, and na why di list of contemporary Ìyálóde and Ìyálọ́jà no be evidence say di institution wey file 01 describe still dey exist.
Di southwest figures strong and di gender gap na di narrowest for Nigeria.
Adult literacy for South West zone, according to di 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, dey at 89 per cent for men and 80.6 per cent for women . Di comparison wey matter na regional: North West literacy na 59 per cent for men and 29 per cent for women, and North East na 50.5 for men and 31.8 for women . Di southwest female literacy reach roughly two and a half times di one of North West, and di gender gap na about eight points against thirty .
Di advantage wey Yoruba get for female education na historical tin wey get traceable origin. Di CMS and Baptist mission schools of mid-nineteenth century, wey concentrate for Abẹ́òkúta, Lagos and Ìbàdàn, admit girls from early on, and di returnee communities treat girls schooling as normal tin. Di professional firsts follow directly from dia: Stella Jane Thomas (1906 to 1974), Nigeria first woman lawyer for 1935 and first woman magistrate for 1943 ; Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi (1910 to 1971), Nigeria first woman physician, wey qualify from University of Dublin for 1938 ; and Felicia Adetowun Omolara Ogunsheye, wey dem born for 1926, first woman graduate of Yaba College of Technology for 1948, Nigeria first woman professor for University of Ìbàdàn for 1973 for library and information science, and di first woman dean for any Nigerian university from 1977 to 1979 .
Ogunsheye biography get one detail wey make sense to look: she hold di chieftaincy title of Ìyálàje of Ile-Oluji since 1982 . To join professorship and traditional women title inside one career na typical Yoruba tin, and e dey repeat through out di record of di twentieth century. Di two systems of standing dey run side by side instead of one to displace di other.
Dem treat dis people with more details inside Women Who Shaped the Century.
How women dominate retail trade still dey continue and person fit see am for any southwestern market. Wetin change for twentieth century, wey never change back, na di position of dat trade inside di overall structure: foreign and later Lebanese companies take over wholesale distribution, so Yoruba market women come dey run di retail end of chain wey dem no control di top levels . Di women institutions survive; dia place for trade hierarchy no survive.
Above di market, Yoruba women dey well represented for law, medicine, academia, banking and media compare to Nigeria averages, and dis na continuation of di mission-school and Lagos-elite line rather than recent development. Bọ́lá Kuforiji-Olubi and Fọláké Ṣólánkẹ́ dey among di documented cases, wey dem treat inside Women Who Shaped the Century.
Di corpus no get verified current figures for women share of Nigerian board seats, senior partnerships or professorships wey dem separate for southwest, and e no dey estimate dem.
Two different diasporas dey touch dis subject and make pipo no mix dem together.
The historic Atlantic diaspora. For Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and dia extensions enter United States, women dey hold religious authority for Yoruba-derived traditions for di highest levels. Di iyalorixá or mãe-de-santo na di head of Candomblé terreiro, and women don lead di most famous houses of Bahia in unbroken succession. In some ways, dis na stronger institutional position for women pass di equivalent for Nigeria, and na one of di sources of pressure on top di Ìyánífá question wey dem treat inside Women in Yoruba Religion. Dem cover di diaspora traditions inside section 08.
The contemporary migration. Yoruba women na big part of di professional Nigerian migration go Britain, United States and Canada from 1980s go front, especially for nursing and medicine. Di remittance economy and transnational household don turn normal part of southwestern family life. Di corpus no get verified figures for di gender composition of dis migration and e no dey supply estimates.
Yoruba women don produce one of di most substantial bodies of African feminist theory, and wetin define am na di refusal of terms wey Euro-American feminism offer, join with refusal to drop di critique of women subordination. To mention di positions one by one dey more useful pass to summarise dem together, because dem no agree on di same tins.
Molara Ogundipe (1940 to 2019). Dem born am for Lagos, e go school for University College Ibadan and Leiden, e be professor for University of Port Harcourt, and na founding member of AAWORD for 1977 and of Women In Nigeria . E book Re-creating Ourselves: African Women and Critical Transformations (Africa World Press, 1994) bring out STIWA, Social Transformation in Africa Including Women, and wetin e talk say make am choose that acronym na the main thing: "The reason for the acronym was to move us away from defining feminism and feminisms in relation to Euro-America or elsewhere and from declaiming loyalties or disloyalties" The move na to make the main focus of theory be African social transformation, wey women inclusion must dey inside as condition, instead of to make am women liberation wey dem define for outside come apply. E position on this comparison dey straight: precolonial Yoruba women "had more private and public spaces and respected roles than pre-feminist American middle-class women"
Mary Modupe Kolawole. E dey for Ọbáfẹ́mi Awólọ́wọ̀ University, and e be founder member of the Network for Women's Studies. E book Womanism and African Consciousness (1997) dey argue for womanism wey root for African values and no be say e dey arrange around sexuality matters wey dey central to Western feminist theory, and e don write on women and Yoruba culture and on how to rethink African gender theory through wetin e call the arere metaphor .
Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi. Africa Wo/Man Palava: The Nigerian Novel by Women (University of Chicago Press, 1996), wey develop African womanism wey dey different from how Alice Walker take use am. Ogunyemi na Igbo by birth and e work inside Nigerian literary studies; dem mention am here because person no fit avoid am inside this literature, and people dey often read e work alongside the Yoruba theorists.
Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí. The Invention of Women (1997) na the one wey get influence pass for international level and na the one wey people argue pass on top, and the disagreement with Bibi Bakare-Yusuf dey well set out for Gender. E later work on motherhood carry the argument go further, as e hold say mother na the primary and constitutive category for Yoruba social organisation, and say to look Yoruba society through "woman" and "wife" na to bring in the wrong primary term.
Bibi Bakare-Yusuf. Na the critic wey look Oyěwùmí work with the deepest detail, and on another side, na the founder of Cassava Republic Press, wey itself be part of the story of contemporary Nigerian women cultural production.
Oyeronke Olajubu. E dey for University of Ilorin, and e book Women in the Yoruba Religious Sphere (SUNY Press, 2003) na the standard work on this topic; e take position between Oyěwùmí and her critics, as e argue for complementarity and duality instead of either equality or subordination . Dem treat am inside Women in Yoruba Religion.
Wetin dem share and where dem separate. All of dem reject to carry Euro-American feminist categories put on top Yoruba matters, and all of dem insist say both the colonial account and the Western feminist account no describe the precolonial position of Yoruba women correctly. Where dem separate na whether the correct conclusion na say gender no be organising category at all (Oyěwùmí), or say e be category but e dey relational and no too tight (Nolte, Olajubu, and in another style Amadiume), or say that search for pure precolonial baseline itself no make sense methodologically and e dey hide today-today subordination (Bakare-Yusuf). Reader no suppose treat "African feminism" like say na one single position.
To take the institutions wey this section cover one by one.
The Ìyálóde and Ìyálọ́jà still remain as titles, but dem don lose the achieved character and the independent base wey form dem. Look above.
Women market organisation still dey real and e still fit do collective action, but e dey operate inside party structures instead of to stand against government like e do for 1947.
Women religious offices inside òrìṣà practice still survive and dem dey strong for some traditions, and the Ìyánífá matter still dey active and never settle; look Women in Yoruba Religion. The bigger context na say the great majority of Yoruba people now na Christian or Muslim, and na inside the Aládùrà churches and Pentecostalism women religious leadership get plenty numbers.
UNESCO put Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ for list for 2008 and people still dey perform am, with the wahala of festival wey e funding base and belief context don change; look Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́.
Dem don document Ẹkún ìyàwó and the women oral genres, but where dem for dey perform dem don almost vanish finish; look Women's Oral Genres and Voice.
Statute laws and courts don reform Customary inheritance and widowhood well well, even though the reform no spread reach everywhere for practice; look Marriage from the Woman's Side.
The plain truth na say the informal and economic foundation of Yoruba women authority last pass the formal and political ones. Market woman for Ìbàdàn today dey hold position wey clear say na the kind position her great-grandmother hold. The office wey take carry that position enter council no dey work again like before, and nothing don replace am.
The Ìyálóde, the Ìyálọ́jà, the Lóbùn of Ondó, the titled women inside the Ọ̀yọ́ palace, the documented cases of female ọba and regents, and what indirect rule did to all of it.
How market authority was structured, how trade wealth converted into political leverage and where that conversion was blocked, the credit system that financed women's trade, and the twentieth-century associations that turned market organisation into a political instrument.
What mission schooling and Christian marriage did to women's economic independence, how indirect rule removed their political channel while continuing to tax them, and the Abẹ́òkúta Women's Union revolt that brought down an Aláké.
Oyeronke Oyewumi's argument that gender was not the primary organizing category of Yoruba society, the serious criticisms of it, and the documented record of women's authority.
Lagos and Ibadan, the emigration wave, where traditional institutions actually stand in the Nigerian state, religion in the family, and an honest account of what has persisted and what has gone.
Fúnmiláyọ̀ Ransome-Kuti and the Abẹ́òkúta tax revolt, HID Awólọ́wọ̀, Wúràọlá Ẹsan, Fọláké Ṣólánkẹ́, Bọ́lá Kuforiji-Olubi, the Ìyálóde and Ìyálọ́jà offices in the modern state, and the Yoruba women who were first in law, medicine and the university.