We Should All Be Feminists

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 2014

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Essay Analysis

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Index of Terms

Culture

Culture comprises the customs, beliefs, and traditions of a group of people. In this essay, Adichie discusses her Nigerian Igbo culture, which she values but also often opposes. She writes that among her siblings, she’s the most interested in her culture and ancestry; however, because she’s a woman, she’s forbidden from participating in this culture in many ways. She can’t attend family meetings, which only admit men. Even when she’s admitted into public spaces in her cosmopolitan city of Lagos, she’s often either ignored or treated with suspicion.

Adichie writes that Nigerian people often caution her against voicing her feminist views, as they aren’t in accord with traditional Nigerian culture. She refutes these warnings by pointing out that “culture is constantly changing” (45) and that many Igbo traditions—like the tradition of murdering twins, who were once believed to be a bad omen—no longer exist. She writes that culture should be flexible and adaptable, rather than set in stone, and that “[i]f it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture” (46).

Gender

Gender literally refers to the male or the female sex. As Adichie discusses the term in her essay, it’s often bound up with culture and tradition: with what people consider to be masculine and feminine ideals. Boys are raised according to a masculine ideal of strength and dominance, Adichie writes, while girls are raised to be submissive and cooperative. Adichie believes that this style of socialization hurts both boys and girls, and that they should be raised to focus on their interests and abilities rather than on their gender.

Adichie writes that because it’s so bound up with culture, gender can be a difficult subject to discuss. Many people believe that questioning traditional gender roles is equivalent to challenging a culture. Adichie believes, however, that a culture should be adaptable enough to accommodate changing notions of gender.

Feminism

Feminism refers to the belief that women and men are equal and should have equal rights. It’s also a term, as Adichie writes, that’s often loaded and contentious. To many people, the word “feminist” implies a woman who wants to dominate men rather than simply be equal to them—and a woman who wants to shatter social norms rather than expand and improve on them. As Adichie argues, such stereotypes are rooted in sexism: in the belief that women are inherently inferior to men and so should always defer to them.

Adichie seeks to both reclaim the original definition of “feminist” and broaden its application. As her essay’s title implies, she thinks that men should be feminists too, as sexism harms everyone. She also thinks that the need for feminism existed long before the term did—and invokes her great grandmother, a brave and independent woman, as an example of an early feminist.

Internalization

Internalization refers to taking on the dominant values of a culture as your own. The term is often used in conjunction with sexism, as in “internalized sexism” or “internalized misogyny.” In her essay, Adichie discusses her own internalized sexism in relation to an early teaching job: She opted to wear a drab masculine suit rather than her usual colorful feminine attire, thinking that she’d be taken more seriously in a suit. That is, she’d internalized the idea that masculine attire signifies seriousness and gravitas while feminine attire signifies frivolity.

Systems of Oppression

This refers to the sets of prejudices and acts of discrimination that exist around different groups of people. Class prejudice, for example—bias against poor people—is one system of oppression, while racism is another. Sexism—on which Adichie focuses in her essay—is yet another.

Adichie uses the term “systems of oppression” in her essay in discussing how one historically oppressed group can often be blind to the oppression of another group. She writes that many of her Black male friends who often refer to their own oppression cannot understand hers as a woman. While they experience racism—one system of oppression—she experiences sexism as well. (As a Black woman, she has no doubt experienced racism too, but sexism is what she’s addressing in this essay.) She means to illustrate that racism, classism, and sexism are three separate categories, all deserving equal recognition.