Patriarchy and Gender Inequality Among Undergraduates

Abstract

Patriarchy and gender inequality among undergraduate students has damaged and still damaging the psyche and academic potentials of female students in our tertiary institutions, notwithstanding strides made with regard to gender equality in our institutions, gender disparity is still very visible mostly in our academic environments. It is obvious that patriarchy and gender inequality has become a transmittable norm in our society, patriarchy as a culture playing a decisive role in constraining the uptake of gender responsive behaviors and practices. This paper examines the underlying mechanisms that constrain gender equality among undergraduate students of Kogi state University, Anyigba and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The work is premised on the eco-feminist theory of (1974) by a French writer Francoise d’Eaubonne. Participant observations and interviews were the means for data collection and the data collected were analyzed using descriptive and analytical tools. From the analysis, the work among other things discovered that some female students are completely unaware and unconcerned of the disparity occasioned by this cooked human philosophy. The work concludes that gender disparity is common among undergraduate students in our tertiary institutions. The work recommends that a department be set aside to deal with this situation in our respective institutions in order to build a society where both male and female students will exercise equal rights for a sustainable development and national cohesion.