Introduction

This opening chapter examines the rise of blogs as key spaces for popular gender debate in Nigeria, highlighting historical shifts in the types of topics discussed on blogs. From high-profile incidents like girl kidnappings and forced marriages, and the Nigerian President’s controversial claim that his wife ‘belongs to the kitchen,’ the chapter explores how blogs capture, report, and shape the reception of various forms of discrimination. These evolving discussions extend beyond socio-political and economic inequalities to challenge entrenched cultural perceptions of women, revealing the complex interplay between culture, economy, and politics in contemporary Nigerian gender discourse. Drawing on Nancy Fraser’s theories of redistribution, recognition, and representation, the chapter highlights the relationships between material inequalities, cultural struggles, and political participation, situating these within the context of African feminist thought. By bridging Western and African feminist perspectives, it provides a framework for understanding the hierarchies and ideologies that underpin gender discourses on Nigerian blogs. The chapter therefore sets the scene for the ubiquitous nature of gender inequality in contemporary Nigerian culture, the rise of blogs as key discursive spaces for gender inequality discourse, the subject-based hierarchisations that characterise blog discourses, and the Western and Non-Western theorisations that explain these developments. The chapter will end with an outline of the rest of the book.