Language and Gender: An Analysis of Discursive Strategies of Legitimizing Gender Equality in Nigerian Newspapers

Article Citation: Shehu Garba Maradun & Umar Ahmed (2019). Language and Gender: An Analysis of Discursive Strategies of Legitimizing Gender Equality in Nigerian Newspapers. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1. ISSN 0794-9316

LANGUAGE AND GENDER: AN ANALYSIS OF DISCURSIVE STRATEGIES OF LEGITIMIZING GENDER EQUALITY IN NIGERIAN NEWSPAPERS

By

Shehu Garba Maradun

Department of Liberal Studies

Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Mafara

&

Umar Ahmed

Department of Modern European Languages and Linguistics

Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto

Abstract

This paper examines the many complex and subtle ways in which female authors articulated arguments in support of gender equality and equity in Nigerian newspapers. It does so by employing the methods of and insights from Wodak's et al (1999) discourse-historial approach to Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze 200 female-authored articles on gender published in five Nigerian newspapers namely: Daily Trust, The Guardian, New Nigerian, The Punch, and The Vanguard from 1999 to 2014. The analysis reveals that the authors have articulated arguments in support of gender equality using various discursive strategies and linguistic features. It also shows that they made use of the topoi of religion, usefulness, justice and human rights, democracy, and gender partnership to legitimize equal treatment of all genders. The paper shows and indeed concludes that legitimation does not always serve as an instrument of achieving domination and hegemony through discourse as other studies suggest (e.g. Chovanec 2010, Oddo 2011, Breeze 2012) but, can also function as a powerful tool of resisting domination.

Introduction

In recent years, the issue of social equality between men and women has become a recurrent topic in many Nigerian newspapers. Since 1999 when democratic governance returned to Nigeria after nearly two decades of military dictatorship, the country has witnessed an unprecedented surge in the wave of gendered discourses in the nation's print news media. The country's return to democracy has expanded the activities of many gender activists and conservative individuals and groups, who tend to use language to oppose or support systems of gender relations in the country. One major forum in which such positions are expressed is opinion articles. As a genre of newspapers, opinion articles (in Nigerian context) present an influential way of constructing and legitimizing particular relations between men and women in society.

This study investigates how language is used to legitimize social equality between men and women in opinion articles in five national newspapers in Nigeria, namely: Daily Trust, The Guardian, The Punch, New Nigerian, and The Vanguard. Using data collected from these sources, this paper investigates the many complex and often subtle ways in which legitimization of gender equality is achieved in the newspapers from 1999 to 2014.

It is worthy to note that although there is a good number of scholarly works that investigate gender relations in Africa and Nigeria in particular, the major lacuna observed in most of these studies is that they failed to highlight the role of language in sustaining and resisting such relations. Using critical discourse analysis (hereafter CDA) and, in particular, the discourse historical approach (see Wodak, de Cillia, Reisigl, Liebhart1999, Wodak 2000, Wodak and Reisigl 2001, 2009), we investigate the discursive (argumentation) strategies used to justify and legitimize social equality between men and women in the newspapers. We also analyze the linguistic means of realization of such strategies. CDA is employed here because of its commitment to uncovering socio-political ideologies in society, some of them encoded in language that may be seen as responsible for social inequality in society (see Wodak et al. 1999, Atanga 2010).

CDA is an approach to discourse studies that investigates the use of language as an instrument of social control. It seeks to demonstrate how language serves as an active agent in the construction of social reality through the illustration of how it is used to enact, legitimate and sustain social and political inequalities in discourse (Fairclough, 1989; van Dijk, 2001; Wodak, 2001). CDA sees language as a form of social practice. That is, it views discourse (language use) as part of social activity, which ‘both shapes and is shaped by society' (Machin & Mayr, 2012: 4, emphasis in original). It is, according to Talbot (1998:149-150), an approach to discourse analysis committed to investigating the role of language in ‘social reproduction and social change'. Wodak et al. (1999:8) indicate that: ‘The aim of critical discourse analysis is to unmask ideologically permeated and often obscured structures of power, political control, and dominance, as well as strategies of discriminatory inclusion and exclusion in language use'. This orientation of CDA is based on the assumption that language is not a neutral tool of communication. This makes the framework of CDA very suitable for this paper which seeks to analyze the role of language in the legitimization of social equality between men and women in society.

Investigating how particular gender power relations between men and women are constructed through language use in the media, especially newspapers, is particularly important. As Mills (2003:185) notes, gender ideology in society, or shared beliefs about who men and women are and the relations between them, ‘are often authorized in some sense through being mediated by the media', which tend to influence the way individuals may perceive and construct sense of selves in relation to others. Bearing this in mind, the article analyzes how gender equality is legitimized through the use of certain discursive (argumentation) strategies in the newspapers.

The article is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses the concept of discursive (argumentation) strategies. The data and methods of data collection are discussed in section 3. In section 4, we analyze data and present research findings. Section 5 concludes the study.

Discursive (Argumentation) Strategies

In discourse-historical approach (the approach to CDA adopted in this study), discursive (argumentation) strategies represent a category of analysis which examines how arguments are articulated against or in support of particular positions (see Wodak et al 1999, Reisigl and Wodak 2016). A key tool of analysis of argumentation strategies employed in this study is topoi, or argumentation strategies. Reisigl and Wodak (2001: 44) talk of these strategies as ‘systematic ways of using language' to achieve a particular communicative goal (Reisigl and Wodak, 2001: 44). van Dijk (2000:97) defines topoi as parts of argumentation that ‘represent the common sense reasoning typical for specific issues'. In the same vein, Wodak (2009:42) describes topoi as, ‘parts of argumentation which belong to the obligatory, either explicit or inferable premises. They are the content-related warrants or ‘conclusion rules' which connect the argument or arguments with the conclusion, the claim'. Topoi have also been viewed as ‘conclusions or thematic propositions used to refer to a particular group or event', or a line of argument (de Luna, 2013: 80). In this study, topoi have been identified as a significant means by which particular positions on gender attributions of identity are legitimized. Topoi are considered important in this research because, as Zampetti (2006:26) observes, ‘they [can] help us uncover deeper meanings in arguments'. In that, as he further observes, examining topoi can ‘offer us a systematic, organized process whereby we can acquire, interpret, manage and use information (in the form of arguments) critically' (ibid: 23). In section 4, we will discuss the 6 topoi that featured in the legitimation of gender equality in the data. These include topoi of religion, usefulness, justice and human rights, democracy, abuse and gender partnership.

The Data and Methods of Collection

The data for this study is made up of opinion articles on gender published in five Nigerian newspapers. The selected newspapers are, namely: Daily Trust, The Guardian, The Punch, New Nigerian, and The Vanguard. These newspapers are chosen purposively because they have national coverage and distribution. Although they are published in English, they enjoy wide readership in the country. English is the official language in Nigeria and has more speakers than any other local language in the country. The only regional consideration given in choosing these newspapers is location. The Guardian, The Punch and The Vanguard newspapers are located within the southern part of Nigeria, while Daily Trust and New Nigerian newspapers had their head offices in the North. This, however, does not detract from their national spread, because they have correspondents in almost all major Nigerian towns and cities. It should however be noted that although the newspapers tend to focus on national issues, sometimes they also promote certain regional interests. Perhaps this explains why most of these newspapers seem to enjoy more readerships in the region they are published than in other parts of the country. However, in order to give a full picture of the way social equality between men and women is legitimized in the newspapers, the data was sourced from the five newspapers published in different parts of Nigeria.

Another criterion for selecting the newspapers is that they cover the time period beginning from 1999 to 2014. This period was selected because it witnessed an unprecedented surge in the wave of discourses on gender in the print news media in Nigeria, especially the newspapers. In other words, since 1999, gender issues especially social equality between men and women, have become a recurrent topic in most of the national newspapers in Nigeria. This long period is also chosen in order to give a wider coverage to allow for uncovering the general trends in the discursive legitimation of gender equality and equity in the newspapers. The data used for analysis was obtained mainly from the archives of the newspapers located in three major Nigerian cities: Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna. The Guardian, The Punch and The Vanguard have their archives in Lagos, while those of Daily Trust and New Nigerian are situated at Abuja and Kaduna respectively. We visited the head office of each newspaper, explained the purpose of the research and sought permission to access the data stored in their libraries. The study could have obtained all its data from online sources, but a search for data online yielded only a few relevant articles. Perhaps, this is because in the process of updating their websites, these newspapers tend to replace old reports or articles with new ones. Since the study covers a fifteen-year (1999 – 2014) period, it was thought that restricting its data to a few articles available online might not be ‘representative enough.' Nevertheless, the few available data searched and obtained online was also used in the study. Note that for ease of identification of the source of particular data, the newspapers are coded as follows:

i. DT for Daily Trust

ii. NN for New Nigerian

iii. TG for The Guardian

iv. TP for The Punch

v. TV for The Vanguard

Although the online version of the reports in the newspapers might have some differences from the print edition such as hyperlinks to related articles, graphic illustrations and other possible peculiar resources, these differences cannot however affect the study. The perceived difference between the online and print editions of the newspapers is therefore insignificant as far as this work is concerned. This is because this paper is concerned with only the linguistic aspect of the reports, that is, the actual wording and not the type and size of the fonts used in the different versions and the graphic illustrations that may accompany them. It is not expected that the online version will display certain linguistic features different from those displayed in the print edition since normally; they originate from the same manuscript and published by the same media house (or newspapers). The texts used in the analysis consist of opinion articles authored by female authors.

With regard to the huge amount of opinion articles on gender by female authors in the newspapers and the practical constraints imposed mainly by the availability of time and other limitations, a decision was taken to select articles based on their saliency to the research topic and publication within the period covered by the study. Even at that a ‘Quota sampling' method (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009: 235) has to be employed, in order to produce a corpus that can serve as both a representative of the huge data collected and at the same time analyzable within the time frame needed for the conduct of the research. The overall corpus consists of 200 female-authored opinion articles on gender with an approximately 187,000 words size. This method of sampling is chosen, because it is very useful in selecting the most salient articles for analysis and does not involve probability calculations. Saunders et al. (2009:235-236) explain that using this sampling method ensures that sample selected represents certain characteristics of the total study population chosen by the researchers.

Analysis of discursive strategies used to legitimize gender equality

Analysis of discursive (argumentation) strategies used to legitimize social equality between men and women in the newspapers can be done by categorizing the topoi used in the process in the following way. Note that the list presented below is derived from the discourses of legitimation of gender equality identified in the data, and does not in any way presumes to be exhaustive:

1. The topos of religion

2. The topos of usefulness

3. The topos of justice and human rights

4. The topos of abuse

5. The topos of democracy

6. The topos of gender partnership.

In the sections and sub-sections that follow, we will discuss each of these topoi in some detail. Note that in the course of analyzing each topos particular attention will be paid to the linguistic means of its realization. The analysis will also examine how the discourses in the topoi contribute to the justification and legitimization of social equality between men and women in society.

The topos of religion

This topos is an appeal to religious authority, often through reverence for divine authority. It is, in the words of Reisigl and Wodak (2001:79), a form of argumentum ad verecundiam, by which a particular position is constructed as true because, an authority, or in this case God or certain religious scriptures, agree with it. For example, in Excerpt 1, the author quotes a verse from the Bible to legitimate equality of the genders.

Excerpt 1:

“It doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilised, slave or free. Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us” (Collosians 3:11). This biblical quote shows that men and women are equals and therefore should be treated equally. The Bible is therefore against all forms of discrimination, sexism, classism, racism, ageism; the basis of peacelessness in society. (TP, 27.6.2010, p. 39)

The excerpt opening with a quote from the Bible is noteworthy. It allows the author to invoke authorization by making an appeal to divine authority to call for equality of all persons regardless of their race, gender, and social status. The purpose of this intertextual reference is to construct all forms of discrimination against persons, especially based on their gender, as ungodly and therefore evil. This is intensified by the author's identification of sexism and other forms of discrimination as source of ‘peacelessness' in society. By constructing this link between these two concepts (i.e. sexism and peacelessness), the author legitimizes her support for social equality. Note also the declarative clause ‘he [Christ] lives in all of us' (Excerpt 1, lines 2-3), by which the author constructs a homogenous religious identity for all the readers. The assumption here is that all the readers believe in Christ, who as the excerpt showed, has authorized equality between men and women. Excerpt 2 illustrates another salient example of religious argument in support of gender equality.

Excerpt 2:

According to the renowned Evangelical Christian Evangelist and ordained Pentecostal minister, Dr. Myles Munroe, men and women are created equal. On page 23 of his best-selling book: "Understanding the Purpose and Power of women", he writes, "If the nations of the world had understood God's purposes for women and men, they would have realized that the spirit of equal rights that demands equality was never tended by God, because he has already made men and women equal. Men and women were created equal. Men and women are equal.” Therefore regarding or treating one gender as inferior and inconsequential is wrong. (TG, 23.9.2003, p. 43)

This example further shows how the topos of religion can be used to further justify and legitimize gender equality. In the excerpt, the view of a renowned Christian religious leader, Dr. Myles Monroe, serves as a primary reference point for the discursive authorization of gender equality. What is however interesting in this example, is that it highlights Dr. Monroe's institutionalized religious position as an ordained Pentecostal Priest, who declared that God created men and women as equals. His authorship of a best-selling book and position as a highly respected religious leader, as reported in the excerpt, implies that he had unique knowledge of the spiritual purpose of creation of human beings. This paves the way for the author to delegitimize discrimination on the basis of gender, labelling it as an ungodly social practice. Of more significance is the way the author repeatedly declares men and women as equals in three consecutive sentences in the excerpt. The aim of this, it would seem, is to enable the author reinforce the argument she articulated and ensures that the point she made stays in the reader's mind.

The topos of usefulness

Here, the authors frequently made use of topos of usefulness to express their support for social equality between men and women in society. Reisigl and Wodak (2001) note that, this topos is based on the premise that ‘if an action under a specific relevant point of view will be useful, then one should perform it' (p. 75). To this topos (of usefulness), Reisigl and Wodak (ibid) further identify three sub-types. These include ‘the topos of ‘pro bono publico' (to the advantage of all), the topos of ‘pro bono nobis' (to the advantage of ‘us'), and the topos of ‘pro bono eorum' (to the advantage of ‘them')' (ibid). In the corpus, it was observed that the first of these sub-types (i.e. the topos of ‘pro bono publico') featured prominently than others, as the following example illustrates.

 Excerpt 3:

Experts have calculated that for each additional year of schooling, a woman's income increases by 20%, agricultural productivity increases by 10%, infant mortality drops by 10%, and the return on investment in deferred health expenses is 25% [...] It was also stated that in Nigeria, if young Nigerian women had the same employment rates as young Nigerian men, they would add 13.9 billion Naira in annual GDP. Gender equality and women empowerment are therefore not favours done to women but, the smart ways to go as they benefit the entire society. (TG, 23.9.2012, p. 33)

This excerpt shows how economic argument and statistics can be used to advocate for women empowerment and gender equality. The repeated use of numbers in the example can be seen as a discursive strategy, in that it allows the author (of the excerpt) to represent women's empowerment as a means to an end. Although the bases for the statistics was not explained in the example, credibility of the calculations behind it comes from the opening clause (‘Experts have calculated'), which also serves to authorize the author's opinion. Note also the use of the noun phrase ‘smart ways' (Excerpt 3, line 7) to construct women's empowerment as a smart way of promoting development in society, is explicitly stated in the excerpt. Thus, the example shows how the topos of usefulness can be used to advocate for gender equality and equity. In another example, the author uses a causal argumentation scheme to highlight the usefulness of gender equality. Her choice of the adverbial clause of condition: ‘Until equal numbers of girls and boys are in school' (Excerpt 4, line 1), to introduce her argument is noteworthy. It allows her to argue that without giving equal educational opportunities for both men and women, boys and girls, the society will continue to suffer from poverty, hunger, and diseases. The use of the adjective ‘impossible' (Excerpt 4, line 1) enables the author to express commitment to the truth value of the proposition she makes. This adjective can be taken as an example of ‘stance value' (Adendorff, 2004). Stance values, as Adendorff (ibid:206) describes them, are linguistic resources, which a speaker or writer can use to indicate certainty, commitment or otherwise of her proposition. By using this adjective, which functions as a stance value in this context, the author indicates her commitment to the truth-value of what she says, as the example below illustrates.

Excerpt 4:

Until equal numbers of girls and boys are in school, it will be impossible to build the knowledge necessary to eradicate poverty and hunger, combat diseases and ensure environmental sustainability. Therefore, there is no basis for competition or subjugation of one gender by the other as we march towards 2015. It is time to put an end to gender inequality and all its concomitant effects on our country's future (DT, 12.3.2014, p. 21).

It is also interesting how the author, through the use of this topos (of usefulness), attempts to articulate an argument that can persuade the reader, and by extension men and women in society to work together to put an end to all forms of discrimination against persons based on their gender or sex category. Drawing upon gender partnership discourse, the author delegitimizes suppression of one gender group by another through the declarative clause there is no basis (Excerpt 4, line 3), which portrays the practice as unnecessary and inappropriate. Of significance also, is the way she represents gender inequality as having concomitant effects, suggesting that it has attendant consequences for the future of the country. Thus, the excerpt shows how the topos of usefulness can be used to instrumentally rationalize a position, or in this case, express support for equality of the genders through highlighting the benefits that can be derived from promoting social equality between men and women in society.

The topos of justice and human rights

This topos was used to legitimize equality of the genders by showing that it conforms to the provisions of Nigerian Constitution and some international human rights conventions that declared equality for all persons regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity and place of origin or creed. The topos is thus based on the principle of equal rights for all human beings. The following example serves to exemplify the topos.

Excerpt 5:

The 1999 Constitution [of the Federal Republic of Nigeria] (as amended) provides in section 42(1) that no person shall be discriminated against on the basis of community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion. As regards sex, the provision is also in compliance with international conventions especially the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Section 42(1) specifically protects the right of women against discrimination based on sex. So is also Section 15 (2) of the same Constitution. The combined effect of the provisions of the two sections is that discrimination against women is illegal, as far as the law is concerned. (TV, 11.3.2013, p. 25)

As this example shows, discrimination against persons based on their gender was depicted as a breach of the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnic group, and religion. By using this topos (of justice), the author argues against discrimination against women. The writer's appeal to the authority of the Constitution, as encoded in the topos, is noteworthy. It paves the way the author to delegitimize gender inequality by declaring it unconstitutional, and therefore illegal and unacceptable. Note also how the author repeatedly makes reference to some relevant sections of the Constitution. This intertextual reference, it would seem, was used by the author to give credibility to the argument, transforming what would otherwise be taken as own subjective view into an objective one. This enables the author to present the position as authoritative because, it was derived from the country's supreme law. It would also seem that the reference to the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) made in the excerpt was meant to show that, discrimination against women is something that has been prohibited also by international law or treaty. This comes out even more overtly in Excerpt 6, where the author appeals to the authority of the Constitution and some international conventions on human rights to de-legitimize discrimination against women.

Excerpt 6:

Discrimination against the woman is inconsistent with the AU Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights which promote right to live and personal integrity; Sections 33 and 35 of 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria also promotes rights to life and personal liberty respectively. (TP, 18.9.2014, p. 30)

The topos of abuse

Related to the topos of justice and human rights, is the topos of abuse. This topos focuses on the protection of women from exploitation and victimization. Through this topos, women are represented as victims of physical abuse and some cultural practices in society. In excerpt 7 for instance, the author employs juxtaposition to de-legitimize cultural practices that discriminate against women. This strategy involves putting some lexical items, phrases, and clauses in contrastive (and often adjacent positions) in order to achieve an effect. By placing side by side, practices that can improve the lots of women with those that limit their opportunities and rights, the author is, in a way, asking the reader to make a choice between what can be loosely polarized as ‘beneficial' practices on women and ‘harmful' ones. Thus, through the use of this discursive strategy encoded in this topos (of abuse), she appeal to the reader's sense of justice to legitimize social practices that empower women and de-legitimize those that limit their opportunities and rights.

Excerpt 7:

Instead of moral support, proper up-bringing, good education and respect for child rights, thousands of girl-children and women are enslaved by parents or guardians to engage as domestic workers or forced into early marriage across the country. (TP, 18.9.2012, p. 35)

In a further bid to de-legitimize practices that are abusive to women, in Excerpt 8, the author employs the topos of abuse to argue that since women play a key role in sustaining the family institution, which is the basic unit of society, they deserve to be protected from physical abuse and exploitation. Here again, juxtaposition was used to legitimize some practices on women and de-legitimize others. This could be seen in the way the author uses the metaphor ‘the pillars' (Excerpt 8, line 1), to refer to women and the vital role they play in the family. She contrasts this with the following declarative clauses in which women are portrayed as ‘the victims of the most telling abuses' and ‘socio-economic, political exploitation [of the woman] (Excerpt 8, lines 1-2). To further depict women as victims of abuse, the author uses an emotive declarative clause in which she reports that ‘women have fallen victims of the most vicious forms of gang-rape' (Excerpt 8, lines 5-6). This discursive strategy allowed the author to draw attention to what women receive in return from the same society in which they play an indispensable role. By this juxtapositioning, the author is, in a way, appealing to the reader's sense of justice to legitimize better treatment of women and de-legitimize physical abuse and other forms of maltreatment of women in society.

Excerpt 8:

Women are the pillars of the family institution, yet they are the victims of the most telling abuses and socio-economic, cultural and political exploitation in our society. Trafficking in women and children has become so commonplace nowadays that we wonder if any nobody is seriously tackling it. Consistently across the world in the last few years, many girls and women have fallen victims of the most vicious forms of gang-rape (TP, 11.1.2013, p. 18).

The topos of democracy

The topos of democracy is based on the premise that since political equality between men and women conforms to universal values and principles of democracy; one should be in favour of it. In Excerpts 9 and 10, the authors employed this topos to point out to the reader that discrimination against women poses a serious threat to the growth and development of democratic systems of governance in the country. They also argued that a democracy that discriminates against women contradicts its principles. The proposition in the excerpts can be interpreted as suggesting that democracy was designed to give equal political opportunities to all citizens regardless of their gender, social class, ethnic group, and religious beliefs.

Excerpt 9:

A democracy without active participation of more than half of the population is susceptible to failure. In short, a democracy that discriminates against women is a contradiction in [sic] terms. (DT, 27.4.2013, p. 28)

Excerpt 10:

A democracy in which more than half of the population still suffers from some ingrained limitations and prejudices is one that is seriously incapacitated by a huge deficit. (TP, 9.3.2011, p. 23)

These Excerpts sought to collectively highlight how the topos of democracy can be used to legitimize social equality between men and women in society. Using this topos, the authors attempted to establish a cause and effect relationship between women's active participation in political and governance processes and sustainable democratic systems in the country, suggesting that the latter depends largely on the former. Of more interest here, is the use of the adverbial phrase ‘seriously incapacitated' (Excerpt 10, line 2), and the noun phrase ‘susceptible to failure' (Excerpt 9, line 2) to portray discrimination against women as constituting a serious threat to the growth and development of democracy in the country. Here, the authors' strategy was to appeal to the reader's presumptive desire to promote and protect democratic systems of governance in the country. The authors know that since many Nigerians fought hard for the return of democracy after nearly two decades of military dictatorship, they would not want the system to fail. This is because; the failure of the systems may result in chaos in the political system, or even the return of military dictatorship. Thus, what the authors were doing here was to point out to the reader, the dangers of not giving all citizens, and women in particular, equal political opportunities in democratic systems of governance. Note also the metaphor ‘deficit' (Excerpt 9, line 3) used to describe the effect that may result when democratic systems do not give equal opportunities to all citizens. It is also significant to note how the author of Excerpt 9 for instance, used the adjunct (‘In short') to summarize her view point and also, reinforce the proposition she made.

The topos of gender partnership

This topos emphasizes the need for men and women to work together towards developing a better society. Using this topos, the authors draw on economic arguments and the notion of teamwork to justify and legitimize gender partnership, which by implication elevates the status of women to equal partners with men in developing the society, as the following example suggests.

Excerpt 11:

We should expect growth and development when men and women listen and learn from each other's skills and talents. According to a recent study, heterogeneous groups comprising persons of different genders get better results than homogeneous ones. (DT, 12.12.2012, p. 39)

This example illustrates the use of the topos of gender partnership to legitimize gender equality. Of interest here, are the discursive features used to achieve the legitimation. First, the excerpt opening with the declarative clause ‘we should expect growth and development' is noteworthy. It allows the author to establish a cause and effect relationship between growth and development and gender equality; constructing the latter as a viable means of achieving the former. The author positions herself as confident of the proposition she has made through the modal verb (‘should') in the clause: ‘we should expect' (Excerpt 11, line 1). By using this linguistic resource which functions as a stance value (Adendorff 2004) in this context, the author indicates commitment to the truth-value of what she says, depicting it as certain. The author draws on research findings to not only justify the call for gender partnership, but also present what might otherwise be seen as own subjective position as authoritative. This can transform what would otherwise be taken as her own subjective view, into an objective one.

Similarly, this topos (of gender partnership) encodes arguments that focus on potential benefits of teamwork, and which also provides grounds for legitimizing gender equality. Some of these arguments emphasize the need for men and women to work together for the betterment of the society, as illustrated in the following example.

Excerpt 12:

Since one hand alone cannot build a house, men and women should work together to build a better and prosperous nation, which we all dream for […] The task of nation building may be difficult but as the Ghanaians would say “The load is lighter when two people carry it.” (NN, 17.10.2007, p. 30)

Here, the adage one hand cannot build a house (Excerpt 12, line 1) was used by the author to argue for gender partnership (and ultimately, make the case for gender equality). The use of this saying, it would seem, is meant to show that nation building is a task that requires active participation of all citizens and not just a section of the population (or, in this case one gender group). Of more interest, is the way the author referred to the Ghanaian (Akan) proverb: ‘The load is lighter when two people carry it', further reinforcing the argument that the task of nation building should be a collective responsibility of all citizens (regardless of gender and other social differences). Moreover, given that Ghana is one of the countries that (presently) appears to have positive connotation in Nigeria, the reference the author made to the Ghanaian proverb in the excerpt can be seen as a strategy of persuasion. It allows her to appeal to the readers' presumptive Xenophilic sensibilities to persuade them to support the call on men and women to work together as a team for the betterment of society. It would seem also, that the reference to this foreign proverb was meant to show that the wisdom behind the notion of teamwork (or, in this case gender partnership) is something that is also recognized in other African cultures. It therefore constructs gender partnership as part of the wider African culture. Thus, the example shows how the notion of teamwork as encoded in the topos (of gender partnership) is used to legitimize gender partnership, and which by implication, elevates the status of women to equal partners with men in developing the society.

Conclusion

In this paper, we have examined how some female authors articulated arguments in support of social equality between men and women in Nigerian newspapers. The analysis reveals that through the use of the topoi of religion, usefulness, justice and human rights, democracy, and gender partnership, the authors advocated for equal treatment of all genders. It also showed that the topoi were realized through linguistic features such as pronouns, adverbial clauses, declarative clauses, noun phrases, intensifiers, intertextual devices, metaphors, idioms, and proverbs featured prominently in the discursive legitimation of social equality between men and women in society. More importantly, the paper has demonstrated that legitimation does not always serve as an instrument of achieving domination and hegemony through discourse, as other studies suggest (e.g. Chovanec, 2010; Oddo, 2011; Breeze, 2012). It can also function as a powerful tool of resisting domination. Moreover, it has shown that campaigns for gender equality in Nigeria involve women using language in the print news media to advocate for equality of the genders, as a way of engendering social change in society.

References

Adendorff, Ralph (2004). The Principal’s Book: Discursively Reconstructing a Culture of Teaching and Learning in an Umhazi High School. In: Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. Studies in Social Change. L. Young & C. Harrison (Ed.). London, Anthony Rowe: 202–216.

Atanga, Lilian. L. (2010). Gender, discourse and power in the Cameroonian parliament. Bermenda, Langaa Research & Publishing.

Breeze, Ruth (2012). Legitimation in corporate discourse: Oil corporations after Deepwater Horizon. In: Discourse & Society 23: 3–18.

Chovanec, James (2010). Legitimation through diflerentiation. In: Perspectives in politics and discourse 36: 61-73

de Luna, Rodríguez M. (2013). ‘The Other’ Crossing: Discursive representations of the management and dynamics of the southern boarder of Spain (M.A. Dissertation). University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg. Retrieved from https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/handle/ 11250/185864

Fairclough, Norman (1989). Language and Power. London, Longman.

Oddo, Johnson (2011). War legitimation discourse: Representing ‘Us’ and ‘Them’in four US presidential addresses. In: Discourse & Society 22: 287–314.

Reisigl, Martin/Wodak, Ruth. (Ed.). (2000). The Semiotics of Racism. Approaches in Critical Discourse. Vienna, Passagen Verlag.

Reisigl, Martin/Wodak, Ruth. (2009). The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In: Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis (2nd ed). R. Wodak, & M. Meyer (Ed.). London, Sage: 87–121.

Saunders, Mark,/Lewis, Philip/Thornhill, Adrian. (2009). Research Methods for Business Students (5th ed). New York, Pearson

Talbot, Mary. (1998). Language and Gender. Cambridge, Polity.

Mills, Sarah. (2003). Gender and politeness (Vol. 17). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Machin, David/Mayr, Andrea. (2012). How to do Critical Discourse Analysis. Los Angeles, Sage.

van Dijk, Teu. A. (2000). On the analysis of parliamentary debates on immigration. In: The Semiotics of Racism. Approaches in Critical Discourse (pp. 85–104). Vienna, Passagen Verlag: 85–104

van Dijk, Teu. A. (2001). Multidisciplinary CDA: a plea for diversity. In: Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. Martin, Reisigl & Ruth, Wodak (Ed.).London, Sage: 95–119.

Wodak, Ruth. (2000). Does sociolinguistics need social theory? New perspectives on critical discourse analysis. In: Discourse & Society 2: 123–147.

Wodak, Ruth. (2001). The Discourse Historical Approach. In: Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. Martin, Reisigl & Ruth, Wodak (Ed.). London, Sage: 63-94

Wodak, Ruth. (2009). The Discourse of Politics in Action. Basingstoke, Palgrave.

Wodak, Ruth,/de Cellia, Rudolf/ Martin, Reisigl/ Karen, Liebhart. (1999). The Construction of National Identities. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.

Zompetti, Joseph P. (2006). The value of Topoi. In: Argumentation 20: 15 -28.

The official website of the DEGEL Jounal is https://www.degeljournal.com