The Role of Women in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's the Last of the Strong Ones

Oftentimes, writers in their creative ingenuity wittingly or unwittingly create female characters in their works and entrust them with certain roles that are noteworthy to readers. Thus, this research undertakes a study of the roles of women in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo's The Last of the Strong Ones. These texts, which recreate life as it was in pre-colonial and colonial Igbo society, explores also, the roles women played during these eras; either socially, politically or within the family. The primary data for this study are obtained from Achebe's Things Fall Apart and Adimora-Ezeigbo's The Last of the Strong Ones, while the secondary data are drawn from libraries, scholarly articles and the internet. As a library-based research, this study adopts a qualitative method of research by paying closer attention to how the roles of women are presented and interpreted in both texts. The findings of the research reveal that women are saddled with lesser roles in male-authored works as is the case in Things Fall Apart while in female-authored works, the roles of women are humongous and celebrated, just as it is evident in The Last of the Strong Ones. The study concludes that the roles of women in our society are important and should be prioritised to foster growth and development, regardless of the patriarchal systems that are institutionalised in our societies.