Are men really more powerful than women?

Differences in gender roles is apparent in modern society and is a significant theme throughout Chinua Achebe's novel, "Things Fall Apart". In Ibo culture, women are subservient towards the male authority. Patriarchy has manifested itself in the social, legal, political, and economic organization of Ibo culture.

It is implied that women are in some ways viewed as property for men in Ibo culture. This is reflected by the fact that men would purchase his wives. Once married, the man has control of everything, including the children. The idea of love and connection between man and wife was not how the ibo people define marriage. Many Ibo women do not really love their husbands but instead have a sense of fear towards their husbands. These women have little to no value of their own.

In addition, the men in Ibo society are not hesitant to beet women for minor circumstances. Okonkwo gave his second wife, Ekwefi, a sound beeeting for merely cutting a few leaves from a banana tree to wrap some food. Shorthly thereafter, he "nearly killed [her] with his gun" (Achebe 48).  In another circumstance, a woman and her husband, Uzowulu, were at trial because "no day passed in the sky without his beating the woman" (Achebe 91).

Male dominance is also reflected in the Ibo ways of farming. While the women grow crops like coco-yams, beans, and cassava, "Yam, the king of the crops, was a man's crop" (Achebe 23). In Ibo culture, yam is symbolic of masculinity. The more plots of yam farms a man owns the wealthier he is and  he has a better chance of keeping his family feed and devoid of starvation and famine.

How people even today perceive men in comparison to women

Differences in gender roles are still aparent in modern society world wide, however to a lesser extreme. Simlar to Ibo society, women today are expected to be housewives that clean, cook, and take care of children while men go to work.