We Should All Be Feminists

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Nonfiction
2012 Anchor Books
Finished on June 28, 2018
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Okoloma was one of my greatest childhood friends. He lived on my street and looked after me like a big brother: if I liked a boy, I would ask Okoloma's opinion. Okoloma was funny and intelligent and wore cowboy boots that were pointy at the tips. In December 2005, in a plane crash in southern Nigeria, Okoloma died. It is still hard for me to put into words how I felt. Okoloma was a person I could argue with, laugh with and truly talk to. He was also the first person to call me a feminist.

Publisher's Blurb:

What does “feminism” mean today? That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.

With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.

I picked up a copy of We Should All Be Feminists to give to my granddaughter, who turned 16 this year. I have heard very good things about this thought-provoking book and decided to give it a read before I wrapped it up. A slim, pocket-size book (under 50 pages), which can be read in a single sitting, We Should All Be Feminists is a powerful essay collected from the author's 2012 TEDx talk about feminism. This is the first book of Adichie's that I've read and I plan to read Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, which sounds just as compelling.

I would like to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently...

We should all read this book!