Paper short abstract:

Contrary to the popular construction of Lagos markets as female spaces, women traders find that they have to devise strategies of resistance, pushing the boundaries of legality to secure their livelihoods against the oppressive, male-controlled structures of market and government authorities.

Paper long abstract:

Markets in Lagos, as in other parts of Yorubaland, are discursively constructed as spaces where women are in charge, perhaps, based on their numbers (Surkadasa, 1973; Mba, 1987). However, my research on the spatial relationships between women traders, the state government and market institutions at the Oke Arin market in central Lagos points to women's subordination and reflects Massey's (1994) concept of gendered spaces. Massey (1994) explains that spaces are in themselves gendered and that they also reflect and affect how gender is constructed and enforced in a context. Although women historically held traditional powers to run markets in Lagos, the 1949 Colonial Ordinance undermined these and put in "male market- masters employed by municipal bodies to administer markets" (Mba, 1987:248). Thus, based on a study sample of 80 women traders, I argue that women sometimes find that the only weapon they have left is resistance and other so- called 'weapons of the weak' (Scott, 1985). The interactions in Oke Arin suggest that the market space is in constant contestation, being shaped and controlled through gendered power struggles. The current 'internal structures of domination and subordination' (Massey, 1994:154) are evident in the property ownership structure; governance and access to facilities in Oke Arin. In response to spatial politics and the dominating structures of market and government authorities, women traders devise strategies of resistance, sometimes pushing the boundaries of legality to secure their livelihoods.