Women, Social Media, and Culture in Africa

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the use of social media by African women to speak out on social injustices, women empowerment, and traditional gender norms and stereotypes. Conventional media have often portrayed women as sex objects, morally deficient and vulnerable. This chapter explores the multiple representations of African women on social media and assesses whether these representations mirror or challenge those of conventional media. The chapter further explores the reconstruction of African women through digital gender platforms. It argues that while women utilize the social media space to discuss women’s issues, not much has been done to implement policies that will address such issues. Nevertheless, social media continues to be a useful tool for teaching, learning, and facilitating public dialogue on challenging unjust social and legal systems about African women. African feminists use social media to direct the narrative around women’s rights, thereby gradually changing the misrepresentation of women in the new media. The study suggests that there should be policy frameworks to support the usage of social media by African women for empowerment and justice.