Sexism is quite ingrained in the Nigerian ecosystem that even when companies try to spotlight the skills and abilities of a woman, they miss by a wide margin. The Amstel Malta #WeGotBalls advert of the Super Falcons for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup is one such case. With its tagline, creating a separation between women, and showcasing discomfort within female football except if the women acted like men, Amstel Malta was telling audiences that women don’t belong in sports unless they have ‘balls’ like men. According to Atilola Oluwademilade Adeyinka, founder of SirenCo, a feminist non-profit organization, these stereotypes are a constant uphill battle that even women who work in these companies can’t fight against. She said: 

Most Nigerian companies cater to the male gaze. Generally, when they push out marketing content, they pander to what men think, even when they have women in their teams. They just want to cater to the male demographic. So those marketing tactics are very intentional. It happened with the Mummy Zee thing too, where brands that should know better were applauding something very harmful to the very heavily pregnant woman who had to be waking up by 4 a.m. to cook for a man. 

Beyond ad campaigns and social media discourse, these stereotypes seep into daily offline activities, increasing a misogynistic ideology that has been in existence for centuries. However, the fast-paced world of online spaces makes it easier to form a community that breeds hate against women, especially if they are nonconformists. Sometimes, this hate spurns into gender-based violence. 

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe states that hate crimes targeting a specific gender are, ‘criminal offences motivated by bias against a person’s gender.’ According to Chioma Agwuegbo, the founder of women’s rights advocacy organization, TechHer, hate crimes against women come in different forms. ‘It could be online harassment, bullying, trolling, or nonconsensual intimate image abuse,’ she said. ‘It could then go offline and become really violent.’ 

These acts don’t happen by chance; many of them are thoroughly thought out before they are enacted. In some cases, groups of men are encouraged by their male counterparts to be hostile towards women because it increases their belief of being an alpha, or solidifies an incel mindset. However, terms like this can diminish the far-reaching negative effects of such movements, making it seem like a foreign concept that has no place in Nigeria. Agwuegbo said: 

A number of our cultures in Nigeria, and on the continent, are actually incel culture by another name. We have cultures where men don’t have to go out and get women for themselves, where women are promised to men. We had communities in the southern part of Nigeria where people who couldn’t pay back their loans would say ‘take my daughter, my wife, or my sister’. Or where they ‘will marry wife for you’ [sic]. If you look at the roots of it, that’s incel culture as well. 

In a bid to create a safer world for themselves, more women are raising their voices, calling for the right to be heard, the right to move freely, the right to live without fear, and for the end of femicides. Despite their efforts, however, most of them are regarded as radical feminists whose anger will yield no results.  

Over three weekends in July 2024, Adekinya and her SirenCo team were joined by over 120 women who participated in a walk against sexual harassment, organized by SirenCo. But they were met with scorn and opposition during their campaign against assault. This was an unexpectedly jarring experience for Desiree Ogunkola, writer and assistant communications team lead at SirenCo. Ogunkola said that women are the ones who fight for women. While a few men try, women are the champions. However, the women fighting against a patriarchal and misogynistic society are ‘a small minority that’s exceedingly loud.’ Ogunkola told me: 

We organized the walks digitally but the reality was very startling when we showed up in our numbers. I assumed half of the world knew the information we were sharing, so I didn’t think we would have that much opposition, even from women. 20 minutes into the walk we had our first negative interaction with a man while carrying our placards saying, ‘No means no. Stop raping women.’ He stopped us and said he was going to rape whoever he wanted. Cognitively, I know that it’s something that’s ingrained because of incel culture, patriarchal culture, and Nigeria in general; the religious and social limits on dressing have contributed to that. But it was honestly the most jarring experience. 

A report by the National Bureau of Statistics states that rape incidences increase yearly in Nigeria. According to the 2022 Statistical Report on Women and Men in Nigeria (pg 84), rape cases increased from 48 per cent in 2021 to 65 per cent in 2022. Almost one in three (31 per cent) women aged 15- 49 have experienced physical violence in Nigeria, according to a 2022 report by UNICEF.