Many scholars have revealed that various elements of folklore have emerged outrnof the age long human experiences. Folktales and popular sayings belong to the verbalrnaspects of fo lklore and are believed to reflect a given society's mode of thinking,rntraditi on, attitudes, ways of life and so on. Research indicates that through the study ofrnsuch forms of oral li te rature, it is possible to learn the political, cultural and social idealsrnas well as the economic realities of a given society.rnThe present study is aimed at exploring how women have been portrayed in somernfolktales and popular sayings of the Oromo of East Wollega. It has been found out thatrnwomen and the femin ine attributes have been portrayed negati.v ely in most of the talesrnand sayings widely told in the area. In most tales and sayings, women characters in bothrngenres are depicted as unfaithful, adulterous, cruel, ignorant, foo li sh and the like.rnHowever, in very few tales and sayings, women particul arly one's mothers and wives arerndepicted as lovable, generous, wise and tactful.rnMost of the folktales and popular sayings in which men and women arerncharacterized seem to have been used for maintaining arid validating patriarchy.rnWomen's role and status in the society seem to have been di mi ni shed to such a very greatrnextent. As the finding indicates, the society seems to have a wrong perception aboutrnwomen.rnThe paper has four chapters. In the firs~ chapter an attempt was made to state andrndescribe the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the studyrnand signi ficances of the study. Besides, areas of the study, methodology and the socioculturalrnbackground of the people under focus have been included here. In the secondrnrnch apter, an attempt has been made to review the works of many schol ars on oral li teraturernin general and folktales and popular sayings in particul ar. The third chapter deals wi th thernanalysis of the folktales and popular sayings coll ected from the area under focus .rnâ€¢rnFinally, an attempt was made to conclude what has been discussed under thernpreceding chapters. The li st of informants and the tales and sayings selected for analysisrnhas also been appended at the end.