Read the book: «We Should All Be Feminists»

Copyright

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2014

First published as a Vintage Original eBook in the United States in 2014 by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House company

Copyright © Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2014

We Should All Be Feminists was first presented as a TED talk given in the United Kingdom at TEDxEuston, in 2012

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008115272

Ebook Edition © October 2014 ISBN: 9780008115289

Version: 2014-08-22

Introduction

This is a modified version of a talk I delivered in December 2012 at TEDxEuston, a yearly conference focused on Africa. Speakers from diverse fields deliver concise talks aimed at challenging and inspiring Africans and friends of Africa. I had spoken at a different TED conference a few years before, giving a talk titled ‘The Danger of the Single Story’ about how stereotypes limit and shape our thinking, especially about Africa. It seems to me that the word feminist, and the idea of feminism itself, is also limited by stereotypes. When my brother Chuks and best friend Ike, both co-organizers of the TEDxEuston conference, insisted that I speak, I could not say no. I decided to speak about feminism because it is something I feel strongly about. I suspected that it might not be a very popular subject, but I hoped to start a necessary conversation. And so that evening as I stood onstage, I felt as though I was in the presence of family – a kind and attentive audience, but one that might resist the subject of my talk. At the end, their standing ovation gave me hope.