We Should All Be Feminist Adichie

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The essay “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimimanda Ngozie Adichie explores feminism as it is perceived by society and describes her belief that everyone should be a feminist. Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria and has become an award winning author, as well as a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She uses personal anecdotes and the experiences of her friends to demonstrate how women are treated differently or as lesser, and how being a feminist has gone wrongfully defined. Adichie defines being a feminist as “a man or woman who says ‘Yes there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better’ ”(48). While her anecdotes provide a great backbone created by experience some of the events chosen creates …show more content…
Rather than focusing on the theory or history of feminism, Adichie takes on the approach of pointing out societal flaws around women and ends with a call for all to take action to right these wrongs. Though her personal anecdotes do create small weaknesses, in general they are the source of power and push behind Adichie’s argument. She chooses to start off her entire essay with a personal anecdote involving her close friend Okoloma and how he was the first one to bring the word feminist to her attention. This story plays a large role by demonstrating society’s perception of feminism because from the first time she heard this word she comes to the realization that “It was not a compliment” (8). In addition, she describes her story involving her American friends describing how they say they do not want to be perceived as “aggressive” and how Adichie finds it shocking “how invested they are in being liked” (23). Adichie’s anecdotes serve as not only a starting point of understanding, but also clarify that problems involving gender are present world wide. Her essay also gains strength by covering areas other than the workplace by addressing areas like marriage and upbringing. Adichie unravels our assumption regarding marriage and how the concept that marriage is more important for a woman rather than a man is tightly held onto. She describes how women who go on unmarried after a certain age see it as a “deep personal failure” (30), while men “has not quite come around to making his pick” (30). Unlike most Adichie’s essay regarding feminism makes sure to talk about a possible root problem of gender inequality as well as a suggestion to fix this. This root problem being that boys and girls are raised very differently in today’s society. Adichie describes these differences in how boys and girls are raised through a story involving a family she
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