Women

"'When did you become a shivering old woman,' Okonkwo asked himself, 'you, who are known in all the nine villages for your valor in war? How can a man who has killed five men in battle fall to pieces because he has added a boy to their number? Okonkwo, you have become a woman indeed.'"
Okonkwo sees women as emotional, incompetent property; really little more then slaves.

Maybe I'm just a feminist, but I feel that the way the women are treated is part of the downfall of the community. When women are held this low in a community, it eliminates so much potential for growth. When women and bought for family connections and money, there is less happiness and when you aren't happy, you don't try. When half a society isn't attempting to better a community, it is an instant recipe for failure.

I remember reading that a lot of women joined the church because it's beliefs made more sense. I believe if men would embrace women and emotions, the clan would have been able to last longer, resisting the church.

"No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man."