NIGERIAN CAREER WOMEN’S PERCEPTION OF THEIR REPRESENTATION IN SELECTED NOLLYWOOD FILMS

Abstract

Career women constitute a group of upwardly mobile individuals contributing to societal development in Nigeria. Nollywood films have variously portrayed career women on different light. However, the perception of Nigerian career women to how they are represented in Nollywood films have not received adequate attention. This study was, therefore, designed to examine Nigerian career women’s perception of their representation in selected Nollywood films.

Melvin Defleur’s Cultural Norms and Emmanuella Lombardo’s feminist analytical theories served as framework. The interpretive and descriptive survey designs were employed. Ten films were purposively selected based on their representation of career women. They were Ije, Guilty Pleasures, Mr & Mrs, Lionheart, Isoken, Rough Diamond, Tango with Me, 100% Secrete, Ghana Must Go and Iyore. Copies of a questionnaire were administered to 580 purposively selected career women who watched Nollywood films. Data were subjected to content analysis and descriptive statistics.

The portrayals of career women in Nollywood films are perceived by career women as misrepresentations and inappropriate. Mr & Mrs emphasizes the need for a husband and his family to allow wives who so desire, to practise their chosen career and also projects problems associated with a wife being too engrossed in her career. Ije and Guilty Pleasures attribute marital breakup to wives being prevented from pursuing their career. In Rough Diamond, Mena almost loses her job due to her desperate desire to keep her home by pretending to be pregnant and adopting a child under false pretence. Tango With Me, 100% Secrete, Ghana Must Go and Iyore depict different aspects of women’s lives with no attention paid to their careers. In Lionheart, Adaeze wields her astute entrepreneurial skills to revitalize her aged father’s ailing transport company. Isoken similarly portrays a successful career-minded young woman whose priority was not necessarily in marriage, much to the chagrin of her dear mother. A majority of the respondents (86.7%) and (56.7%) perceived that women are rarely represented in Nollywood films as influential leaders and role models, respectively. In addition, 83.7% viewed their portrayals in the films as negative and stereotypic, 28.1% saw them as passive victims, while 22.9% understood them as scheming and manipulative, and 21.3% adjudged them as available sex object. Career women challenges indicated that 49.0% of the respondents grappled with time management, 23.9% desired self-improvement, and 17.0% coped with sexual harassment in the workplace.