Gender and Changing Forms of Inheritance among the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria: A Case-Study of Women’s Inclusion in Landed-Property Bequest in Ijesa Land

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue IV, April 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Gender and Changing Forms of Inheritance among the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria: A Case-Study of Women’s Inclusion in Landed-Property Bequest in Ijesa Land

OWAGBEMI, Olusola Gabriel, OLUSANYA Oyewole Omoniyi
Department of Sociology Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract: Over the years, gender has been one major factor which determines what goes to an individual in inheritance acquisition in the Yoruba society of the South-west Nigeria. As it is in most patriarchal societies there has been unequal positioning of male and female children to inheritance. The study investigates gender and the changing form of inheritance among the Yoruba of South-west Nigeria. Quantitative data was collected from randomly selected respondents numbering one hundred and twenty-five. The quantitative data collected were analysed with statistical package for the social sciences and the formulated hypotheses were tested using chi-square. Findings revealed that. The inheritance system is still in favour of the male than the female children due to patriarchal culture which still prevail among the Yoruba people. The Yoruba still believe that female children are not permanent member of their ‘first’ family, therefore if given a landed property, when married, it will become the husband’s property. The study also confirms the future possibility of female inclusion into landed properties inheritance acquisition in Ijesa land. The study therefore recommends that the Yoruba should de-emphasise the culture of patriarchy which promotes the superiority of men over women. people should be encouraged to stop seeing women as not being part of their ‘first’ family and also, as someone who cannot adequately handle landed properties even if it’s transferred to them after their parent’s demise, women should be out to seek for redress whenever they are being discriminated upon in inheritance sharing.

Keywords: Gender, Inheritance, Acquisition, Landed-properties, Transfer

I. INTRODUCTION

Gender is the expectations about attributes and behaviours appropriate to women or men and about the relations between women and men, which are usually shaped by culture. Gender identities and gender relations are critical aspects of culture because they show a picture of how family life should be lived on daily basis. Not only this, it can also be extended to the wider community and the workplace (Sunam, 1999). In every society, gender functions as an organising principle which give cultural meanings to being male or female (Araviashvili, 2014; Levy and Pinto, 2012)).

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