Introduction

This chapter discusses various issues of significance to women’s fictionwriting in a broad perspective. It examines research on what women write, including themes from women writers from the United States, Europe, Asia and the Arab world, and covering topics such as war, racial inequality, patriarchy, migration, civil unrest, sexual abuse and domesticity. Furthermore, it examines women’s literature in Africa that focuses on racial discrimination and poverty. From the specifically Nigerian literary sphere, themes of women writers in English, Yoruba and Hausa are presented, providing insights into social issues such as marital problems, childlessness and the oppression of women. In this way, the themes that will be discussed in subsequent chapters are introduced, showing that the voices in these writings address issues which affect women across the world.