Graduation Year

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Womens Studies

Major Professor

Kim Golombisky, Ph.D.

Committee Member

David Rubin, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Tangela Serls, Ph.D.

Keywords

economic empowerment, Facebook, gender inequality, Nigeria, transnational feminism, women, social empowerment

Abstract

This paper examines how the March 2022 #BreakTheBias campaign on Facebook was used as an empowerment platform in Nigeria, where women experience gender disparity. Research on the role of social media in women’s empowerment in Nigeria is an area that has not been fully studied. Previous studies have looked at women’s empowerment mainly through an educational or political lens, neglecting how social media have also been effective in empowering women. Other researchers have studied how women utilize social media platforms for leisure, entertainment, and media sharing. In the present study, non-probability sampling was used to identify 20 posts that convey empowering messages on Nigeria’s Facebook feeds during the 2022 #BreakTheBias campaign between the 1st and 31st days of March 2022. Here, I define “empowering” as the process of bringing someone into a state of power or control by increasing their potential, ability, choice, and confidence through the transference of knowledge. I looked for recurrent themes in the exemplar texts, pictures, and videos that illustrate economic and social empowerment messages. The empowerment messages were analyzed using feminist textual analysis. I argue that social media are instrumental for women’s economic and social empowerment in Nigeria through entrepreneurial empowerment, philanthropic initiatives, financial inclusion, online communities, psycho-social support, and Facebook therapy. The over-arching themes of empowerment include feminism, economic empowerment opportunities, resilience, self-confidence, as well as self-awareness, and motivation. In the context of this study, transnational feminism informs an inclusive paradigm for marginalized women and thinking about feminist activism and empowerment campaigns on gender inequality that is intersectional in practice.

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