Constructing Gender: An exploration of Nigerian Men’s Conceptualization of Masculinities in Modern Nigerian Drama

Abstract

The paper “Constructing Gender: An exploration of Nigerian Men’s Conceptualization of Masculinities in Modern Nigerian Drama” examines the aspects of masculinities in modern African drama, the crisis it generates and how the crisis is resolved. Majority of studies on gender roles in the family has consistently found that men are not doing more in terms of domestic labor (despite the entry of large numbers of middle class women into the workplace), and there is little support for the intuitively expected premise that this inequality in household responsibilities would result in overt crisis in gender relations.
In this paper, the concept of masculinities encompasses actions, words, beliefs, postures and carriage meant to prove to the females that males are in-charge in all things.To understand the familial masculinity in the modern Nigerian families, first we need to have an understanding of modern Nigerian pattern of gender order. Historically, this pattern has been functioning through the overall subordination of women and dominance of men. Here, sex determines the roles and behaviours of individuals. Accordingly, values, customs and laws are based on sex differences, with men being the powerful and the dominant, and women being the weak and the subordinate. This pattern is still in force in many modern African societies, particularly Nigeria.