The woman question this book asserts is a western one and not a proper lens for viewing african society rethinking gender as a western construction oyewumi offers a new way of understanding both yoruban and western cultures winner of the american sociological association sex gender sections 1998 distinguished book award. 2001 the invention of women making african sense of western gender discourses agenda vol 16 african feminisms i pp 134 135. Invention of women making african sense of the author traces the misapplication of western westem gender discourses she says body oriented concepts of gender through the history 1 came to realise that the fundamental category of gender discourses in yoriuba studies. Her 1997 monograph the invention of women making an african sense of western gender discourses won the american sociological associations 1998 distinguished book award in the gender and she was born in nigeria and attended the university of ibadan and the university of california at berkeley. The invention of women demonstrates to the contrary that gender was not constructed in old yoruba society and that social organization was determined by relative age a meticulous historical and epistemological account of an african culture on its own terms this book makes a persuasive argument for a cultural context dependent