GENDER SCHEMA IN ADORAH NWORAH’S HOUSE WOMAN

Abstract

Adorah Nworah’s House Woman (2023) highlights gender discrimination faced by African women. This research aims to highlight the issues of gender schemas faced by African women after marriage. The novel’s protagonist Ikemefuna is treated as a servant not only in her parents’ house but in her partner’s house as well. The other women in the novel are also seen as trying to fulfill the expectations of a gender-based society which usually follows gender schemas. Gender schema theory proposed by Sandra Bem illustrates the idea that gender discrimination is impregnated in the minds of individuals from a very young age. The present study also examines that the male characters in the aforesaid work are often seen as ordering their women to serve them all the time. This element of their personality shows that they are trained to subjugate their women and women are often born to obey and serve them. This paper intends to achieve the idea that it is the society that impregnated the minds of both genders with differentiated schemas. Women only live to serve men. Women strive for basic rights, while men enjoy all the freedom due to gender schemas.