We Should All Be Feminists

We Should All Be Feminists
Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Country Nigeria
Language English
Genre Essay
Publisher Fourth Estate
Publication date
 2014
Media type Print (Paperback)
ISBN 978-0008115272

We Should All Be Feminists is a book-length essay by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. First published in 2014 by Fourth Estate, it aims to give a definition of feminism for the 21st century.[1]

The essay was adapted from Adichie's 2012 TEDx talk of the same name, first delivered at TedX Euston,[2] which has been viewed more than three million times.

Content

The book is critical of the way masculinity is constructed. However, "it does not seek to berate men or set one sex against the other. She recognises that society as a whole must change if equality is to be achieved."[3]

Adaptations

Audio from Adichie's talk was included in Beyoncé's 2013 song "Flawless". Adichie was credited with a featured role on the track.[4] Adichie largely remained silent about her feelings on Beyoncé's use of her speech, but in a 2016 interview in Dutch magazine De Volkskrant, while acknowledging that with the song Beyoncé had reached many people who otherwise might otherwise never have heard the word feminism, Adichie said: "Still, her type of feminism is not mine, as it is the kind that, at the same time, gives quite a lot of space to the necessity of men. I think men are lovely, but I don’t think that women should relate everything they do to men: did he hurt me, do I forgive him, did he put a ring on my finger? We women are so conditioned to relate everything to men. Put a group of women together and the conversation will eventually be about men. Put a group of men together and they will not talk about women at all, they will just talk about their own stuff. We women should spend about 20 per cent of our time on men, because it’s fun, but otherwise we should also be talking about our own stuff."[5][6]

Reception

The book received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Rupert Hawksley said: "it just might be the most important book you read all year" in The Telegraph.[3] The Independent selected it as a book of the year, for it "would be the book I'd press into the hands of girls and boys, as an inspiration for a future 'world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves.'"[7]

In December 2015, the Swedish Women's Lobby and publisher Albert Bonniers revealed the book is to be distributed to every 16-year-old high school student in Sweden, with the intention that it will "work as a stepping stone for a discussion about gender equality and feminism".[2][8][9] The effort is supported by the UN Association of Sweden, the Swedish Trade Union Conferation, the Order of the Teaspoon, Unizon and Gertrud Åström. They "hope that teachers will integrate We Should All Be Feminists into their teaching, and will be distributing discussion guidelines to help."

In September 2016, designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first female creative director in the 70-year history of the fashion house Dior, at her premiere show for the brand featured a T-shirt bearing the statement: "We Should All Be Feminists".[10][11]

References

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