UNIZIK JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND HUMAN RELATIONS

The age-long gendered language about women in Igboland can be deconstructed using assertive rather than affirmative action. This study seeks to show that misogyny is the base of the gendered language about women in Igboland across ages. It argues that rather remaining affirmative to misogyny, and gendered language and ills against the women, assertive action is the panacea. Oral interview and questionnaire are used to gather primary data from randomly selected women in Ehugbo and Mbaise of Ebonyi and Abia States respectively. Print materials from the internet and the library constitute the secondary data sources. Qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques are deployed for the data analysis. The analysis reveals that gendered language has been used overtime to profile and misrepresent women in Igboland as ‘weaker vessels’, who can never be considered equal with men. The study concludes that gendered language about women in the land thrives because of affirmative action by women and men alike. The study charges women to deconstruct gendered labels about them, and be assertive rather than affirmative in their actions concerning gendered language, role and matters in order to attain a new world order, as they prove to men that neither females nor males are inferior or superior to the other. The study is rooted in Walker’s Womanist Theory, which upholds gender complementarity rather than bigotry.

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