The theme of motherhood is central to the plot of Emecheta's novel 'The Joys of Motherhood'. That is because motherhood is regarded highly in Igbo culture. According to the culture, the best thing that a woman does is have children. Thus, motherhood is considered a central tool of the patriarchal machine to control women. According to Emecheta, “Women have been victimized by society, their husbands, their father, colonists, and even their children. Though each kind of victimization differs from the others in its intensity and its subject” (Emecheta, 1988: 556). By moving to the big metropolis, the protagonist fulfills her dream and becomes a mother, however, the difficult economic situation in Lagos doesn't allow Nnu Ego to feel the pleasures of motherhood. She is forced to adapt to a system that is alien to her, where her role as a mother is not rewarded. She is denied the maternal pride and recognition that once would have made it acceptable for her to endure the kind of poverty associated with childbearing. She is, in this way, injured by the new political economy of Lagos, injured by a social setting where the tribal glorification of motherhood is still espoused in the face of cultural and economic forces that no longer reward women for their role as mothers (Derrickson, 2012: 35).
Motherhood is one of the types of women's victimization in Emecheta's novel. Motherhoods is socially connected with the women's role and place in the traditional Igbo community. Nnu Ego is forced to adhere to the patriarchal norm of how a wife should act. If she deviates from her role, she is automatically labeled as a bad wife or mother. 'Motherhood', therefore, can be regarded as a patriarchal institution in which women are the subjects of oppression and domination. As Emecheta notes in her book men use women's feeling of responsibility against her and entrap her in the role of the mother, which highlights the subjugation of women by the patriarchal machine. “She was in a prison, imprisoned by her love for her children [...] it was not fair she felt, the way men cleverly used a woman's sense of responsibility to enslave her” (Emecheta, 1979: 137). In other words, Nnu Ego has been enslaved both by her patriarchal culture and her children.
Nnu Ego represents the African woman who is trapped between modernity and tradition. She was raised in a strict patriarchal environment, where she was taught to follow the male rule. Emecheta depicts a society in which women are subjugated to male authority because they are women, inferior to others, they are not as rational and intelligent as men are. This is apparent from Nnu Egos' treatment throughout the novel; her life is dictated by males and she did not have the freedom of decision. Nnu Ego follows the male constructed rule that a woman “must get married to become a mother of sons and to do this successfully, she has to accept the authority of her father and husband. A daughter is not allowed to make my decision regarding marriage and children” (Emecheta, 1988: 557). In other words, women were never free: girls were dominated by their fathers, and women were dominated by their husbands. This is apparent from the tradition of the bride price: “girls have no choice in whom they marry and that sexual relationships are unromantic because fathers sell their daughters to the higher bidder” (Helaly, 2015: 120). These types of practices though are normalized and seen as cultural practices, they are inherently faulty and sexist. The cultural power is given exclusively to men they chose their wives and whether or not they have children.
This type of toxic masculinity is apparent from Nnaife's attitude towards his wife: “Nnaife is absent most of the time but whenever he returns, he makes her wives pregnant. ...Even when he returns from the war, after a long time absent, he makes Nnu Ego and Adaku pregnant” (Barfi, Alaei, 2014: 18). In Igbo society, the value of a woman was measured according to her ability to bear sons. In the case of the protagonist, despite the love that her first husband had for her, he still divorced her because she could not fall pregnant. In a sense a woman is reduced to just her reproductive organs, her self-esteem and self-worth are dependent on her ability to be a mother. Even the law in this sense is against women: “In Ibuza, a childless marriage is not recognized. When a woman is virtuous, it is easy for her to conceive” (Emecheta, 1979: 82). This demonstrates how society victimizes women who are unable to fall pregnant.
Automatically the inability of a couple to conceive is seen only as of a woman's problem, because men are always able bodies. This type of sexist mentality is embedded in the cultural fabric of Igbo society. When Nnu Ego complains to her husband, he replies: “What do you want me to do? I am a busy man. I have no time to waste my precious male seed on an infertile woman. I have to raise children for my life”. Here we can see that women are not equal to men, but are also reduced to their reproductive organs (Emecheta, 1979: 81). “Women don’t have any individuality, anything of their own for they are women: men's property and their appendage”, meaning that if a woman can't fall pregnant is considered less than a human (Barfi, Alaei, 2014: 18).
In Igbo culture, children are a symbol of longevity and testimony of maternity. A wife is expected to have children, but she also expects her children to care for her in her old age. However, unlike Nnu Ego, who was raised with the traditional culture, her children grew up in the colonial Lagos with a different set of values. Despite her sacrifices, her children do not want to follow the culture of taking care of their parents. Nnu Ego's central goal in life was to raise successful sons and went through a lot of hardship to send her children to school. However, she expected her children to care for her in the old age, but this didn't happen. Nnu Ego died on the street, her sons through a lavish funeral for her, which further signified the tragic irony.
Nnu Ego was never free; she was owned by her father, she was given to her husband, and even after death she belongs to her children. Emecheta's title ‘The Joys of Motherhood’ is a sarcastic one. Nnu Ego did not get any joy from being a mother. She was raised to believe that if she provided for her children, they would see her sacrifice and care for her in old age; it is her obsession with being a mother that turned her into a victim.