The marginalization of women in less developed and newly industrializing countries.

POLI2302
Kassidy Augustine
Dalhousie University
Proposed argument
Newly industrializing countries and less developed countries have greater disparities in the
marginalization and oppression of women than in developed countries due their history of
colonization and imperialism. Underdeveloped countries already struggle with the standards of
living, economic freedoms and political rights and freedoms for all individuals. But because of
colonization and imperialization which is rooted in patriarchy and oppression, women in these
countries struggle more than their male counter parts, especially if they are women of colour. In
this essay I will demonstrate how colonization and imperialization makes a country less likely to
become a developed country and how and why women in underdeveloped countries have lower
standards of living. I will compare and contrast Nigeria, a less developed country, and South
Africa a newly industrializing country, with developed countries. This is so I will be able to
determine the standard of living for women in underdeveloped countries and why they have
higher rates of marginalization. I will then discus feminist theories to help address these issues in
less developing and newly industrializing nations.
Proposed or anticipated themes.
Theme 1: analyzing Newly Industrializing countries and less developed countries.
- In this section I will anayalize what a newly industrializing country is, specifically how
South Africa is a newly industrializing country and the standards of living for everyone
who lives there and contrast it with the women who live there. I will then do the same
with Nigeria, a less developed country. I will analyze statistics, data, history, political
regime and standards of living using the book “Cases and concepts in comparative
politics” with the case study chapters of “South Africa” and “Nigeria”.
- I will use “Courtyards, markets, city streets urban women in Africa” by Sheldon to
analyze how women of South Africa and Nigeria live on a day-to-day Basis, and how
their culture impacts their lives so I can rule out cultural influence's vs political and
colonial influences of living standards.
- I Shall analyze each country separately because each country has different standards of
living for all members of society depending on the development level. It would be
inaccurate to compare standards of living for women in a developed country and
standards of women in a less developed country because it would not accurately depict
the marinization of women in that specific country to their male counter parts.
- For example, In Canada, A developed country, women have access to education. But so
do all people in Canada. In a country like Nigeria, many women do not have access to
education. But what do education rates in Nigeria look like for men? To figure out the
marinization of women I must compare disparities in that country specifically, not
disparities between countries.
- So, in this section I will be analyzing Different data in South Africa and Nigeria to
determine ways in which women are affected to their male counterparts and analyzing all
aspects of that data.
Theme 3: colonization and imperialization related to the underdevelopment of countries.
- In this section I shall demonstrate how colonization and imperialization has inherently
enabled and aided the underdevelopment of underdeveloped countries. I will show this
through a chapter called “developing countries” in “cases and concepts in comparative
 politics” O'Neil Et al. This chapter talks about what makes a country less developed and
newly industrializing and howcolonization and imperialization contributes to this.
Theme 4: connecting marginalization of women, history of colonization and underdeveloped
nations.
- In this section I will discuss the connections between marinization of women,
underdeveloped nations and colonization and imperlization. I will demonstrate this
through Orouq’s article called “A double colonization” which talks about how arab
women living in underdeveloped countries suffer from oppression and patriarchy in post-
colonial countries.
- I will additionally show that Canada, a developed country has a history of oppression of
indigenous women. Colonization contributes to oppression of women in Canada but
affected indigenous women and women of colour the most.
- I will demonstrate colonization’s effects on women especially indigenous women, all
over the world with Di’Goias article called “Sa’mi women. Terrestrial vigor, ethos”
which talks about the direct impacts of colonization on the colonized groups of women.
- Showing how in developing nations with a history of colonialism, marginalization is
amplified.
Theme 5: Feminist theories applied to solutions
- In this section I will discuss feminist theories and apply them to South Africa and
Nigeria. I will discuss solutions the countries have tried and why they didn’t work, and
the likelihood that these feminist theories will work.
- The “Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories” shows a multitude of feminist theories and
ways of looking at feminist issues. With this book I shall apply various feminist theories
to issues of these nations and solutions. I shall look at how race and economic standing
can also alter the standing of women in these countries as well through theories of
intersectionality.
- Through that article called “Negotiating Access and Privilege: Politics of Female
Participation and Representation in Nigeria” by Ette and Akpan-Obong I will discuss
steps Nigeria has taken for women, why they need to do more and how they can do so.
Anticipated Challenges
One of the challenges that I may face during my essay is explaining how colonization hinders the
development of nations because colonized countries such as the United States and Canada are
developed. So, what makes less developed nations like South Africa and Nigeria so different? I
will have to look at the root of the problem to determine why.
Another challenge I may face, is articulating and addressing the feminist theory of
intersectionality. While showing the impacts of colonization on women, the data may be a little
inaccurate since colonization affects women of colour more harshly, therefore in my research I
hope to show feminist theories of intersectionality to demonstrate this and take race into account.
Another challenge I feel I may face is fully capturing how women are oppressed in South Africa
and Nigeria. Oppression and marginalization of women is not simple or just shown through data
and statistics. For example, there may be high unemployment for black women in South Africa,
but is that because they are truly unemployed? Or is it because their work is through trade and
markets? And is that a bad thing? Additionally, I must look at how that form of work affects
other aspects of their personal lives, age of marriage, domestic violence rates, education levels
and many more other factors. I must look at how quantitative data impacts qualitative data.
Annotated bibliography:
Code, L. (Ed.). (2000). Encyclopedia of feminist theories. Taylor & Francis Group.
The Taylor and Francis Group is an English publishing group who specialize in publishing books
and academic journals. The works of the Encyclopedia of feminist theories provides a new
progressive look on feminist theories and issues that women face in all aspects of their lives. It
looks at self-image, advertising, sports, family structures, health issues all affecting women.
Additionally, it looks at the different waves and types of feminism and how patriarchy affects all
levels of society. Lasty, it articulates how the gaps between men and women can be closed. In
this essay I shall use this source to identify and define key words and subjects in feminism like
affirmative action, third wave feminism and androcentrism. This source also mentions HIV/aids
and its effect on women, I shall use this to speak about the health issues that many south African
women face in contrasted with South African men and its implications. Altogether, this source
gives me a different worldview to look at women's issues, particularly, African women's issues.
Di’Gioia, A(2016). SÁMI WOMEN. TERRESTRIAL, DIALECTAL, VIGOR, ETHOS. Lectora,
22, 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1344/Lectora2016.22.7
Amanada Di’Gioia is a PhD candidate in Slavonic and east European studies at the university of
London. Di’Gioia’s academic journal speaks about the struggles of the Sa’mi women. Sa’mi
peoples are a European indigenous group who have been marginalized due to colonization. She
explains how colonization is the ultimate form of violence against indigenous women and uses
many examples of land, language and culture loss to articulate this fact. In my essay I will use
this to prove how black women of Nigeria and South Africa, who are also indigenous to their
land, face higher rates of violence than non-indigenous women to their land due to the history of
colonization in both countries.
Ette, M., & Akpan-Obong, P. (2022). Negotiating Access and Privilege: Politics of Female
Participation and Representation in Nigeria. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 0(0).
https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096221084253
Mercey Ette is a researching fellow at the university of Leeds and Patience Akpan-Obong is an
associate professor at Arizonia State University. This article articulates the struggles for political
power and representation that Nigerian women are faced with as they try their best to navigate a
political sphere dominated by men. Whilst also considering qualitative research to determine the
lack of women participation in Nigerian politics and coming up with solutions that Nigerian
women have used. I will use this in my research to show the marginalization of Nigerian women
in politics and how that affects other spheres of the political order in Nigeria. I will also use this
source to propose solutions to male dominated politics in Nigeria.
O'Neil, P. H., Feilds , K., & Share, D. (2021). Nigeria . In Cases and Concepts in Comparative
Politics (2nd ed., pp. 661–688). essay, Norton & Company.
Patrick O’Neil and Karl Fields are professors at the University of Puget Sound specializing in
politics and government. Donald Share is an American poet and a former editor of poetry
magazine. The chapter of this book “Nigeria” speaks all about Nigeria, the political Regime,
institutions, civil society, history, parties and current issues. I shall use this source to gather some
statistics and historical context when looking at Nigeria.
O'Neil, P. H., Feilds, K., & Share, D. (2021). South Africa. In Cases and Concepts in
Comparative Politics (2nd ed., pp. 629–658). essay, Norton & Company.
Patrick O’Neil and Karl Fields are professors at the University of Puget Sound specializing in
politics and government. Donald Share is an American poet and a former editor of poetry
magazine. The chapter of this book “South Africa” speaks all about South Africa, the political
Regime, institutions, civil society, history, parties and current issues. I shall use this source to
gather some statistics and historical context when looking at South Africa.
O'Neil, P. H., Fields, K., & Share, D. (2021). Developing Countries. In Cases and Concepts in
Comparative politics (2nd ed., pp. 483–511). essay, Norton & Company.
Patrick O’Neil and Karl Fields are professors at the University of Puget Sound specializing in
politics and government. Donald Share is an American poet and a former editor of poetry
magazine. The chapter of this book “Developing Countries” illustrates the many characteristics,
issues and struggles of developing nations. It also describes how colonization and imperialism
hinder the growth of nations by exploiting its resources and people, thus prioritizing the growth
of colonizing country and leaving the colonized country behind and exploited. I will use this
source to depict the impacts colonization and imperialization has on the impact of the growth of
countries leaving most of them underdeveloped and thus impacting the standard of living for the
people that live there, specifically women.
Orouq, A. (2021). A Double Colonization: The Case of the Arab Bedouin Woman in Fadia
Faqir’s Pillars of Salt. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 18(1), 76–87.
https://doi.org/10.1515/rjes-2021-0009
Ayham Abu Orouq is a graduate student of English studies at the university of Debrecen. She
reveals how colonization impacted the political structures, independence and power of the
country Jordan. She explains how colonial systems also creates a patriarchal hierarchy which
places huge injustices on third world female colonial subjects. Women in these situations face
an interlocking and intersectional system of oppression by the colonial or post-colonial systems
in power. In my project I will use these ideas to articulate how women in underdeveloped nations
face marginalization due to interlocking systems of oppression and colonial domination.
Sheldon. (1996). Courtyards, markets, city streets urban women in Africa. Westview Press.
Kathleen Sheldon is a women's research scholar at the University of California. Her article
“Courtyards, Markets city streets urban women in Africa” is about the personal and cultural lives
of women in Africa. Each chapter is about a different country of Africa and speaks of the gender
and cultural roles of urban African women. This article investigates the personal lives and
household duties of women that cannot be shown in statistics or data which will allow me to
write more about the day to day lives of South African and Nigerian women. Thus, determine the
difference between cultural norms that have always existed between culture norms that have
been impacted from political colonial rule. This will allow me to pinpoint the true orgins of
marginalization of Nigerian and South African women.