The scramble for Africa, initiated by King Leopold II of Belgium, took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. European countries sought greater economic, political and social control and saw an opening for this in Africa. European colonization of Africa continued into the 1950s and 1960s, but the colonial legacy endures today. While both African men and women faced harsh oppression from European colonizers, women experienced greater marginalization, which has influenced their lower social position today. Before European colonization, women held leadership positions, enjoyed basic rights, access to resources, and a considerable degree of autonomy. However, with the advent of European colonization in Africa, the Western patriarchal mindset constructed social structures and laws that served to marginalize women, limiting their fundamental rights and leaving them with little or no autonomy and political power. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay While each colonizing nation has left a huge colonial imprint on modern African societies and their perceptions of women, this paper will focus on the French colonial administration and its colonies in West Africa. French history is full of patriarchal actions, values, laws, traditions, etc. One need not look much further than the French national motto, “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité,” and in English, “Liberty, Egality, Fraternity,” to see the emphasis placed on the elevated position of the male in society. This patriarchal attitude manifested itself even in French colonial efforts in Africa While the marginalization of women permeated all aspects of colonial life in West Africa, this article will focus on how the patriarchal tendencies of French colonial rule manifested themselves in education and through commercialization of land and agriculture. Ultimately, however, this article will discuss how women were integral forces and voices in condemning French colonial rule, offering a glimmer of hope in a patriarchal world clouded by colonial administration French “designed and implemented its educational policy to satisfy colonial imperatives” and was used as “a tool to… shape the future of colonized societies.” Unlike other colonial powers, the French colonial administration was directly and entirely responsible for developing educational policy for its colonies. A primary component of French colonial education policy was assimilation. The philosophy of assimilation was essentially used to “produce colonized Africans who thought and behaved like the French without the same freedom and equality.” Consistent with the idea of ​​assimilation, the French conception of gender roles was also imposed on their colonies and reflected in their educational system: women should remain in the private sphere, la femme au foyer, while men should remain in the private sphere. public. in an article titled “Women's Educational Experience Under Colonialism: Toward a Diachronic Model,” Early in their colonization efforts, French colonial administrators in Senegal left women's education under the control of missionaries, who imposed women patriarchal and Christian beliefs, and have focused their attention and efforts on male education. For example, the infamous French colonizer, Louis Faidherbe, founded an elite all-male school called “Ecole des fils des chefs”(School for the sons of chiefs) in Senegal, and did not create a school for the daughters of chiefs. This example further highlights the discrepancies in female and male education in West Africa. Female education was not even considered a concern in West Africa until the 20th century, and it was not until 1931 that a report by the Higher Council of Education began to discuss female education. Therefore, in response to this concern, the French colonial administration proposed the “école de maison indigène” (native family school) for women. The curriculum of these schools focused on teaching expectant mothers European notions of hygiene and child care.” These schools only further entrenched the French and Western ideal that women should remain in the private sphere and influenced future attitudes towards women's education and inferior social position in West Africa. In addition to excluding women from attaining an education equal to that of men, the French colonial administration also oppressed women in the economic sphere through the commercialization of land – a cornerstone of European colonialism in Africa. In pre-colonial Africa, “land was not a commodity to be individually owned, bought and sold… but rather, lineage was the land unit and all family members, male and female, had rights of use.” In the French colonies, land registration laws were introduced between 1904 and 1906, and these legislative measures “provided the legal framework within which the French expropriated and exploited land and its resources in their West African colonies.” While this legislation was harmful to landowners, women, and men alike, the policy disproportionately affected women. Agricultural land previously controlled by women was transferred to male ownership, otherwise women were often deprived of their lands by French administrators who did not recognize their right to own land. Furthermore, because French administrators seemed unfamiliar with the concept that women could also be independent landowners, women requesting to register their land were often "sent home to fetch their husbands or fathers to register claims at the their place." In addition to the commercialization of land, the French colonial administration also established commercialized agriculture. This contributed to women's loss of economic autonomy because “as families moved from subsistence farming to commercial farming…men were more inclined to engage in agriculture unlike before.” Because of the patriarchal conception that men should have property rights over land and should be the ones to cultivate the land, women were subjected to more vulnerable economic statuses, thus perpetuating a cycle of female inferiority in colonial West Africa. Although women were almost entirely excluded from French colonial social, political and economic structures, women in West Africa had a say and would be listened to. Women-led movements in West Africa emerged during the struggle against colonialism: advocating anti-colonial discussions, organizing mass protests, and resisting French colonial rule. For example, in 1932, women in Dahomey (now part of Benin) staged a revolt against French tax policies. And in 1933, the women of Togo also organized a tax revolt, gathering a crowd of about four thousand people, eighty percent of whom were women. Powerful female leaders at., 2015.