strong patriarchy that would rather have women confined within the precincts of domestic functions , hence limiting their involvement in political movements 6 ’ 7 . These movements were massively dominated by men , with very limited avenues for women either to negotiate the genderdiscriminatory traditions or oppose them as a group 8 . Feminist leaders like Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti , who led the political voice for women in the 1940s within the Abeokuta Women ' s Union ( AWU ), faced serious opposition from both the colonial authorities and traditional male leaders on the ground that womens ’ quest for political and economic equality was too disruptive 9 .
In the absence of social media-contrived connectivity , messages had to be conveyed by feminist activists through newspapers and pamphlets and direct community mobilization that seriously restricted the outreach 10 . For example , the Aba Women ' s War of 1929 - where women freely protested against taxation policy imposed by colonial authorities in southeastern Nigeria faced severe communication difficulties that greatly contributed to the short-lived movement and thus made it easy for the colonialists to contain its spread across the regions at the time 11 . Word-of-mouth and local meetings were the primary means of communicating ; hence , information diffusion and mobilization efforts were slowed down 12 .
Feminist activism was subsidiary to the nationalist struggles , which male elites and colonial administrators themselves favoured , leaving issues about women with little room for expression 13 . Sometimes in nationalist movements , women were simply bolstered by the process of nation-building , but their voices were often sidelined , with their contributions being unrecognized as men dominated the press , including newspapers , radios and televisions 14 . Till the present-day , men continue to dominate the traditional media in the country 15 . With the ability to bypass the traditional media at a cheaper cost , interact and respond in real-time , social media enables activists to get a feel for public sentiment to pivot rapidly as regards strategy
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