If there is a Netflix series that I want more women to watch, then it is definitely Sweet Magnolias, a series set in a small town in the United States of America.
It explores friendship, healing, motherhood and the ties that bind women from childhood to adulthood.
Watching Sweet Magnolias also showed me the importance of having women who are feminist or at the very least feminist leaning in the legal system or as lawyers.
Without giving too many spoilers, when one of the main characters was getting a divorce, her husband wanted to take the house away and she was a housewife with no income of her own. It was courtesy of a feminist minded lawyer that saw her get a successful divorce and saw her keep the house.
I have often thought of that scenario ever since I watched the Sweet Magnolias series and I have often wondered how women in Nigeria and other African countries would benefit more if there were more feminist minded women advocating for women in the legal system.
Asides areas like divorce, we need more feminist minded women who would actively advocate for women and girls who have encountered rape, sexual assault and are insistent on getting justice from a legal perspective.
More often than not, women tend to not pursue rape cases for perfectly valid reasons like the fear of being shamed at the police station and in court. However what this does is the normalisation of sexual assault and the allowing of rapists to roam freely and with no consequences.
With feminist minded lawyers and even police officers, women can have confidence in the legal system such that more rape convictions can happen and deterrents against rapists are set.
This would further send a message that there is indeed a punishment for rape and it would ensure that those who want to rape or assault women think twice before they do.
Even more, feminist lawyers are needed to help tackle the already laid down laws that do not favour women in the constitution.
In the Nigerian constitution for instance, women cannot transfer citizenship to their foreign husbands but men who marry foreign wives can do so.
This law is one out of several that malign women and remove our ability to have agency. With feminist lawyers, there is the possibility of laws like this being challenged by those who have an understanding of the legal system.
To add, feminist minded lawyers are also needed to educate women of the few laws that actually support women’s rights. For example, Nigeria has a sex offenders registry but not everyone knows about it.
Feminist lawyers can help to amplify this knowledge and push for ways these pro women laws can be implemented.
Speaking with Didi, a fourth year Law student, she explained that feminist lawyers are especially needed in areas like domestic violence.
In her words: “There’s this organization called FIDA. The full meaning is in French but it literally translates to International Federation of Female Lawyers. Basically, it’s an organization for female lawyers in Nigeria. There is a student branch in my faculty and these women do amazing work. They help represent women who are victims of DV and SA for little or no charge. Most times, pro bono. They also come through for women who have been abandoned by their husbands and left to fend for their children alone.
Most of these women were unaware of the fact that DV is a crime and the ones that knew were actually scared to come forward.
There are so many instances but I don’t have the full facts. I believe that if these women weren’t feminists, they wouldn’t have made any effort towards helping these women get out of abusive relationships. Neither would they have held these women’s husbands accountable for abandoning them.”
There is no doubt about the truth that feminist women are needed in every facet of society.
Feminist lawyers are needed because laws define what is valued in a society and if there are anti women laws, then it means women are not valued.
Therefore, it is imperative that feminist lawyers are supported, praised and properly documented to avoid erasure of their efforts.
Angel Nduka-Nwosu is a writer, journalist and editor. She moonlights occasionally as a podcaster on As Angel Was Sayin’. Catch her on all socials @asangelwassayin.