(1997) - The Invention Of Women: Making An African Sense Of Western Gender Discourses - Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí
In this book, sociologist Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí argues that British colonial rule imposed a rigid gender binary on Yorùbá society, which had previously organized roles and status by seniority, lineage, and community rather than biological sex. British administrators redefined Yorùbá society through laws and records that fixed people into categories of “men” and “women,” concentrating property rights and inheritance in male hands through patrilineal succession. These redefinitions served concrete colonial objectives by creating clear, enforceable hierarchies of ownership and authority that enabled land seizure, taxation, and tighter administrative control.
To read more of Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí's work, see here.
Colonization did not eliminate, but brought gender discrimination into Yoruba society. In Yorùbá‑land, the transformation of obìnrin into ‘women’ and then into ‘women of no account’ was at the essence of the colonial impact as a gendered process. Colonization, besides being a racist process, was also a process by which male hegemony was instituted and legitimized in African societies.