Title: Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen SuggestionsAuthor: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
First Published: March 7, 2017
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 80
Genre: Essays, Feminism, Non-Fiction
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a childhood friend, a new mother who wanted to know how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie’s letter of response: fifteen invaluable suggestions—direct, wryly funny, and perceptive—for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Filled with compassionate guidance and advice, it gets right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century, and starts a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
Dear Ijeawele is a letter written by the author to a friend with advice on how to raise a daughter to be a feminist. Adichie’s letter goes above and beyond modern feminism and touches on subjects of marriage, motherhood, fatherhood, and the importance of maintaining one’s individuality. The suggestions that she makes aren’t just great suggestions for mothers and daughters about how to be a good woman and feminist, but instead gives advice on how to be a good human being. Adichie also discusses traditional Nigerian expectations of gender roles and the ways that it shapes both men and women.
Adichie’s discussions of marriage and motherhood hit really close to home for me which I didn’t expect. At the time that I read this book, I was a recently divorced mother looking back on the mistakes that I made and how I compromised myself so much to the point of not being able to recognize myself anymore, I wish that I had had this book years ago. The book definitely gave me a lot to think about and offers advice that I would like to apply to my own life as a mother of two girls.
Overall I found the letter to be intelligent and extremely empowering. It’s a decent feminism 101 that maybe won’t be the most groundbreaking for many feminists, but it’s a good introduction. Adichie is very direct in the way that she talks about various topics but not in an overbearing manner, her writing is actually pretty approachable and easy to digest. The letter is a fairly quick read that can be completed in one sitting and it is absolutely filled to the brim with valuable insight. This letter would make a great discussion piece not just for mothers, but for any man or woman with or without children and I highly recommend it.
Quote
“If we don’t place the straightjacket of gender roles on young children, we give them space to reach their full potential.”
About the Author
About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, the Financial Times, and Zoetrope. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book; and Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. Ms. Adichie is also the author of the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck.
Ms. Adichie has been invited to speak around the world. Her 2009 TED Talk, The Danger of A Single Story, is now one of the most-viewed TED Talks of all time. Her 2012 talk We Should All Be Feminists has started a worldwide conversation about feminism and was published as a book in 2014.
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