Enlightened Yet Enslaved: Stereotypes, Psychological Internalisation and the Making of the ‘Other’ in Buchi Emecheta’s Double Yoke

Sushma H; Sheeba Princess A

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84172

Enlightened Yet Enslaved: Stereotypes, Psychological Internalisation and the Making of the ‘Other’ in Buchi Emecheta’s Double Yoke

Author(s)	Ms. Sushma H, Dr. Sheeba Princess A
Country	India
Abstract	Education is fundamentally positioned as a transformative force in women’s lives and is championed as a tool for empowerment and equality. Across policy documents, social narratives, and reformist discourse, the educated woman is portrayed as a symbol of progress, yet such women's penalisation for choosing education is least acknowledged. Even as education expands women's opportunities, it simultaneously positions them for intense scrutiny, contradiction and stereotyping. The contradiction between encouraging women to excel and warning them against transgressing prescribed boundaries is often overlooked. To contextualise this problem, Buchi Emecheta’s Double Yoke is chosen to present education as a contested space for women where intellectual aspirations are spiralled with moral surveillance for gendered control. This study seeks to examine how gendered stereotypes surrounding educated women operate within the narrative, shaping the social perception and psychological response by employing psychological concepts like stereotype threat and self-fulfilling prophecy. These processes reveal how inequality persists even in contexts where women appear to have formal access to opportunity. To deepen the analysis and situate the problem within a broader cultural framework, the study engages with Homi Bhabha’s “The Other Question”, which conceptualises stereotypes as an ambivalent and anxious mode of representation. By highlighting these dynamics, the study calls for a critical rethinking of empowerment that moves beyond access to education and addresses the deeper structures shaping gendered subjectivity.
Keywords	Stereotype Threat, Psychological Internalisation, Empowerment, Educated Women, Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Field	Sociology > Linguistic / Literature
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-07-21
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84172

View / Download PDF File

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Enlightened Yet Enslaved: Stereotypes, Psychological Internalisation and the Making of the ‘Other’ in Buchi Emecheta’s Double Yoke

Share this