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The Role of Women in Society - Things Fall Apart Compared to Mother Was a Great Man

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The Role of Women in Society

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, demonstrates the original and traditional cultures of African, predominantly the Igbo culture. In traditional Igbo culture, men are perceived as the dominant and most powerful sex, while women are perceived as weak lesser people. Although women seem to play an inferior role in society, there are many traditions that exemplify the value and importance of women to males in society.
Although women are mistreated, the Igbo society assigns important roles to the women. Women are the ones who paint the egwugwu house, the house to the most powerful and most secret cult in the clan. “Many colored patterns and drawings done by specially chosen women at regular intervals” (88). …show more content…

People are sent to their motherland because only a mother is capable of making a child feel better. Because the saying is “mother is supreme” and not “father is supreme” it is clear that women actually do have a lot of respect in the Igbo culture.
Mother was a Great Man had very visible examples of the respect for women as well. Oyidiya is an aging woman in the Igbo tribe with two daughters who have married into very

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