Gender roles in Africa are generally even more circumscribed than what we find in the Western world. Although colonialism and modernity changed many of the traditions in different African societies, including puberty rites, sexual division of labor and resources and roles has remained fairly consistent, although time and again, scholars find women who break out of those roles and are thus considered "wicked."
Among the Igbo (Ibo) society in southeastern Nigeria, gender division is usually strict, but there are some unique exceptions to this rule that suggest more fluidity between gender roles. Ifi Amadiume explores this in her classic book Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society.
Amadiume's analysis of pre-colonial Igbo society focuses on the flexibility of gender roles, which were not associated with sex (15). Linguistically, Igbo language has a nondistinctive subject pronoun, which allows for fewer linguistic distinctions between sexes (89). In general, however, this "flexibility" applied to women. Thus, daughters could assume male roles and become sons or husbands. (Amadiume gives only one example of gender flexibility wherein a man takes on a female role, the case of Eze Agba, the priest of the goddess Idemili's shrine-"a 'female man' in the sense that he had to tie his wrapper like women and not wear it loincloth fashion, like men" [53]).
Male daughters were instituted as part of the patrilineage and inheritance rights associated with land. If men did not have a son, they could pass land and trees to daughters if their daughters were recognized, through ritual, as having the rights of "sons." Likewise, wealthy and influential females could obtain wives. The children borne by these wives to their "female husbands" belonged to the patrilineal obi and had inheritance rights accordingly.
Women further had power through women's organizations like the Women's Council was an important pro-female organization that created female solidarity. Women could collectively choose to go on "strike," walking out of the village and/or refusing to perform traditional duties, including sexual services, cooking, and childcare. This collective form of power allowed women to make changes in customs they felt were detrimental (67). Amadiume argues that "their demands were never unreasonable," and usually consisted of things like protecting young girls from lewd behavior (67). They also had power through religious ritual to the goddess Idemili, a goddess associated with the river.
