In addition, she notes that Nigerian taxi drivers and waiters regularly ignore her and treat her as an appendage to her male friends. She remembers how, as a young girl in Nigeria, she was deprived of the opportunity to be her class monitor simply because she was a girl.

She recalls episodes from her own life-and from the lives of her female friends-that illustrate this point. But our ideas of gender have not evolved very much” (18). She posits that the men’s dominance is based on an outdated notion of superior physical strength indicating fitness to lead, and that “ have evolved. She observes that although the world has slightly more women than men, men still hold most positions of power. Such warnings made it clear to her that the word “feminist” implied an angry, bitter woman: “You hate men, you hate bras, you hate African culture, you think women should always be in charge ” (11).Īdichie discusses the injustice of societal expectations for women, both in African culture and in the world at large. She then remembers later episodes in her life, in which she was warned-often by friends or well-meaning strangers-against being a feminist. She remembers an argument that she had with her childhood friend Okoloma, in which he called her a “feminist”: “It was not a compliment. Adichie begins the essay by recalling her early experiences of sexism and anti-feminism.

Chimamanda we should all be feminist