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The document is an academic analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's essay 'We Should All Be Feminists,' exploring the intersectionality of privilege and oppression in shaping women's autonomy. It emphasizes the importance of understanding multiple identities, such as gender, race, and class, in feminist discourse and critiques the limitations of traditional feminist frameworks. The study employs qualitative textual analysis to highlight how Adichie's work advocates for genuine gender equality by addressing the complexities of women's lived experiences.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
20 views16 pages

Article

The document is an academic analysis of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's essay 'We Should All Be Feminists,' exploring the intersectionality of privilege and oppression in shaping women's autonomy. It emphasizes the importance of understanding multiple identities, such as gender, race, and class, in feminist discourse and critiques the limitations of traditional feminist frameworks. The study employs qualitative textual analysis to highlight how Adichie's work advocates for genuine gender equality by addressing the complexities of women's lived experiences.
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Title:

The Role Of Privilege And Oppression In Shaping Women's Autonomy: An Intersectional

Exploration Of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi's We Should All Be Feminists

Abstract:

The pursuit of women’s autonomy is often the result of a complex network of hierarchies and power systems

that influence individual lives. The feminist movement, in seeking basic equality between the sexes, has

recognized over time the need to understand other identities that impact women’s lives. This paper analyzes

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi‘s “We Should All Be Feminists” using intersectionality theory to examine how

privilege and oppression resulting from multiple identities––gender, race, class, culture––exert control over

women’s freedom. This research exposes such dynamics in shaping diverse realities of womanhood and

fostering or obstructing self-determination. The study emphasizes how Adichi advocates for these social

constructs in bringing about genuine gender equality within policy frameworks.

Keywords: Intersectionality, Women's Autonomy, Privilege, Oppression, Genuine Gender Equality

Introduction:

The pursuit of women’s self-governance is simultaneously liberating and intricately challenging. Women’s

traditional or modern secular life in any culture is confronted with power systems that restrict their ability

to articulate, define, and navigate their lives. Feminism seeks to eliminate patriarchy and address gender

inequity—this much stands as true in its earnest forms. However, as some scholars put it, such attempts can

be utterly pointless if the full range of identities within which women exist are ignored—for example

Kimberlé Crenshaw. It would be an understatement to state that intersectionality is mere academic jargon;

rather, it opens avenues for understanding how systems of privilege and oppression accumulate in

imperceptible ways complicate and define a woman’s potential.

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Nigerian Novelist and essayist chimamanda ngozi adichie in "We Should All Be Feminists" explains how

she uses storytelling and critique to shed light on inequalities both globally and in her native Nigeria.

Adichie invites the reader into the inequality paradox: daily moments of life, bound by familial anticipations,

language, and society’s expectations that suffocate one’s potential. She writes:

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, ‘You can have ambition,

but not too much’…”

In that impactful statement is a greater reality that while girls may learn the language of empowerment,

they are still pre-conditioned to function within specific limits. But still, neither Adichie nor Crenshaw

stops there. Both of them focus on the multidisciplinary struggles of women whose racial, ethnic, cultural,

or socioeconomic identities change how they encounter and navigate those boundaries.

This text presents an argument asserting We Should All Be Feminists serves as an illustrative model of how

intertwined privilege and oppression are concerning woman’s autonomy in scope depicting vividly

Jacqueline’s ideology with intersectionality. The narrative begins with “we” inviting everyone – there is

deeper resonance in its unspoken acknowledgment that not all “we” are positioned the same. Take for

instance Nigerian women who have to grapple with gendered cultural expectations alongside transnational

hierarchal structures privileging Eurocentric perspectives. On the other hand, westernized women might

possess certain class or race privileges which enable them to endure gendered restrictions comfortably.

This study aims to focus on two or more layers of identity simultaneously—gender, race, class, and

culture—and how they function both overtly and covertly using Adichie’s essay through Kimberlé

Crenshaw's intersectionality theory. The author illustrates women’s public lives through self-imposed

restrictions such as proper appearances and contractually disguised ambition in her stories. She

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demonstrates the ways women may seek to exercise control differ greatly from one another while still

sharing some fundamental desires like being valued and attempting to control a wide range of resources in

achieving that goal. Thus far, the essay along with this analysis together challenge feminist theory and

activism by advocating for an end to calls framed as single narratives for all women towards one teeming

within depth structural critique rooted in reality responsive to all women's lived experiences.

Literature Review: Feminism, Intersectionality and Women’s Autonomy

It is important to expand the analytical framework beyond gender for a full understanding of women’s

autonomy in the contemporary socio-political setting. Feminist theorists have pointed out that no woman is

“just a woman;” these women also embody genealogy, class, and culture which informs how they undergo

liberty, limitation, or any gradation in between. The initial building block of this line of thought was

provided by Kimberlé Crenshaw with her notion of intersectionality, which has become one of the principal

components debate in feminist theory since its emergence.

1. Theoretical Foundations of Intersectionality

In her landmark 1989 essay “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex,” Crenshaw highlighted

Black women’s lives could not be understood by looking at race or gender separately. Rather, their lives

are influenced by the intertwining systems of oppression. Crenshaw writes:

“Because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism any analysis that does

not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black

women are subordinated.”

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Crenshaw also defnes the term undergoing as ‘intersectionality.’ Therefore it would also mean that it isn’t

simply about adding class or race to gender; rather it looks deeper at how intertwining systems inflict unique

forms of adversity or advantage. A tier of feminism that ignores such framework reverts to a colonizing

mindset where white middle-class women become default while everyone else is silenced or rendered

invisible.

This concept has been developed further by Patricia Hill Collins in “Black Feminist Thought” and bell

hooks in “Ain’t I a Woman?” who argued that feminist activism needs to incorporate multiple dimensions

of identity along with power structures, making additional remarks that they should be taken into

consideration when engaging with black feminists

2. African Feminism and the Postcolonial Context

African feminist scholars have specifically pointed out the shortcomings of Western feminism. Molara

Ogundipe-Leslie, Amina Mama, and Obioma Nnaemeka have emphasized that African feminisms cannot

be imposed externally but must emerge from local contexts as well as value systems and historical

frameworks which include colonialism, globalization, and neocolonial influences.

That strain of scholarship or activism is also informative for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s feminism

because it combines both Nigerian and global narratives. It transcends geographical boundaries by drawing

on both Nigeria and world discourse. Her narratively complex critiques are delivered in a straightforward

way, ensuring her grounded yet widely relatable message reaches numerous audiences. She recognizes this

duality in the essay “We Should All Be Feminists” where she notes:

“I am a Nigerian. And I am a feminist. And I was not raised to think that those two things could go together."

This clash concerning local identity and global feminism occupies a pivotal position within postcolonial

feminist scholarship. As do many African feminists, Adichie reclaims feminism from the foreign label

affixed to it and seeks to reconstruct it in culturally sensible terms.

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3. The Concept of Autonomy in Feminist Literature

Self-governance or freedom from external interference defines autonomy, in feminist ethics and political

theory it mostly refers to the absence of control. However, this ideal remains complicated for many

feminists due to deep-rooted structural inequalities. Friedman and Narayan have critiqued Western liberal

conceptions of autonomy as individually centered while ignoring socialization's impact on women. Narayan,

particularly, emphasized the need to analyze socio-cultural frameworks regarding how autonomy is

negotiated and experienced in non-Western cultures where family and community bonds dominate identity

formation.

Adichie gives more emphasis to context when thinking about autonomy. From her writings, one can deduce

the ways women grapple with personal decision making alongside socio-communal scrutiny, social

elevation, religious obligations, and cultural admonitions of womanhood. An illustrative instance in her

essay is the recalling of the command to “lower her ambition” which was given to her simply because she

was a girl.

“Why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same?”

This rhetorical question reveals very much. It shows how social interactions, alongside state policy and

economic institutions, shape a woman’s imagination of what she can accomplish—and long before she

"chooses" anything.

4. Global Feminism and the Critique of Universalism

Global feminists have earned justified reproach for advancing a universal model of liberation. Chandra

Talpade Mohanty, in Under Western Eyes, has warned against viewing women from the Global South as

powerless victims who require saving. This type of feminism known as universalist tends to impose western

frameworks under the pretext of offering support which also perpetuates relations of domination based on

race, nation, and class.

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Adichie’s work adds complexity to this story. She embraces global feminism and so do I– her TED Talk-

book was widely circulated in the West and even sampled in Beyoncé’s music. But she also criticizes how

African women are incessantly framed within global discourse. Her narrative is both: wanting inclusion

while resisting erasure. Her remark:

“Culture does not make people. People make culture,”

Opposed to the notion that intrusive customs are unchangeable, or that cultural critique is unavoidably

colonial in character, she instead argues for evolutionary cultural changes initiated from within. This focus

is often associated with African feminist movements which advocate for change rather than adoption.

Methodology:

This study uses a qualitative textual analysis—feminist intersectional theory—to examine the cases of

privilege and oppression in the story “We Should All Be Feminists.” The methodology focuses on

comprehensive reading as a primary means of critical engagement, not simply as literary analysis. Close

reading observes life and reality beyond the narrative. Life is told in narrative form to allow interpretation,

which is the essence of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay; she interweaves her personal experiences into

sweeping socio-political arguments, making her work suitable for this approach.

Intersectionality, articulated by Kimberlé Crenshaw, offers both a framework and an ethical perspective for

analysis. It urges scholars to pay attention to the myriad oppressive systems such as racism, sexism, classism

and cultural imperialism that shape women’s lives.. In this instance, Adichie’s thoughts provide a basis for

exploring deeper and more structured aspects of feminist issues, given that they require more than

just.Adding perspectives to the existing discourse and considering intersectionality would not serve justice

explaining it solely as a viewpoint layered atop feminist critique. In fact, it serves as the core foundation

in which Adichie’s discourse is thoroughly explored.

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The specific text that will be examined is "We Should All Be Feminists," an essay by Adichie from 2014

which she originally presented as a TED talk in 2012. This essay, rich with interwoven stories and debates,

examples and critique, operates on several layers: personal memoir, feminist manifesto, and cultural

critique. It is important to attend to how Adichie considers different angles; for example, Nigerian, African,

Black woman, middle class and cosmopolitan. I have chosen key quotations and narrative moments having

regard to gender socialization and culture, class-based constraints, race identity politics and postcolonial

frameworks. This analysis rests on the following assumptions:

1. Women's experiences are influenced by multiple social locations.

2. Compounding privilege and oppression can exist within singular identity.

3. Both context and system must be considered in feminist inquiry.

4. Narrative form and storytelling are legitimate and useful as feminist knowledge.

Therefore, we do not dismiss Adichie’s personal stories as mere confessionals; they illustrate situated

knowledge—testimony of how people experience structural forces, how they resist them, and at times,

accept them internally. As Bell Hooks points out the saying the personal is political has been used not

because it is anecdotal but illustrates how systems much larger than an individual operate within the

mundane everyday existence.

Limitations:

Understanding ideology entails some limitations, especially considering textual analysis. This study lacks

empirical interviews or fieldwork and therefore does not capture how women from Nigeria and the rest of

the world would interpret Adichie’s work. Neither does it claim to generalize her lived reality. The focus,

however, is to analyze how Adichie’s essay intersectionally instructs readers on various inequities which

intervene in a woman’s journey towards gaining freedom and independence.

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The essay is rooted in Adichie’s Nigerian experience; still, its reception in Western media imagines how

attentively global audiences consume it and raises concerns regarding the potential dilution or reframing of

critical perspectives that may result from its adaptation abroad.

Analysis and Discussion:

1. Gender and Patriarchal Socialization in Nigerian Contexts

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie inititates “We Should All Be Feminists” with a story which at first seems

funny, but on closer inspection reveals the deeper reality of life where her childhood friend Okoloma called

her a feminist in an accusatory tone as if it was something unwelcome or extreme. In reflecting on this

Adichie states: “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather how we are.”

Sociologists studying the phenomenon of patriarchal gendering will find their starting point precisely in

this statement. As Nigeria exemplifies , and many other cultures demonstrate, socially constructed roles do

not merely exist as expectations; they also embody moral codes that are linked to culture. Women are

stereotyped for subservience mastered by obedience accompanied modesty and self-sacrifice while men are

enjoined to dominate through leadership. Adichie explains that girls are raised with the prospect of securing

a marriage as one’s ultimate achievement.

“We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or accomplishments, which in my opinion can

be a good thing, but for the attention of men.”

Conditioning takes two forms: the validation of a male figure gives women power, but competition among

women centers around romance instead of mutual support. Socialization of gender roles emerges as the first

breach where independence is curtailed. Adichie notes a certain price that comes with trying to break these

boundaries. Women who do that pay the price of being labelled vexatious or unappealingly unfeminine. To

some extent, an alleged mark of scorn and suspicion follows every instance where she embraced her identity

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as a feminist or spoke about her society’s patriarchal structure. The cultural norm in Nigeria illustrates how

ideology—and not only ideology—shapes behavior. In this case, public action, speech, ambitions, and

aspirations are circumscribed within the confines of woman’s conditioned autonomy.

2. Race, Class and the Global Reception of Feminism

Although Adichie situates her story within Nigeria, her essays reach out to a universal audience. The friction

between local (specificity) and global (legibility) fosters both a problem and an opportunity. Adichie’s

voice is now the emblematic of a global feminist consciousness. It made its way into popular culture when

it was quoted in Beyoncé's song Flawless.

Yet, the international appeal of feminism ignores race hierarchy that structures the reception of different

feminisms. Adichie’s widespread acceptance among Western audiences stems from her fluency in English,

cosmopolitan background, and reliance on Western literary traditions. Her success within global feminist

circles cannot be divorced from her class position or transnational identity. This duality becomes clear

through Crenshaw’s intersectionality:

The ideas of some women are given greater prominence not due to their quality, but rather because the

identities of those women happen to be more comfortable within frameworks of global acceptance. This

does not take away from Adichie’s contributions, it only emphasizes the intricate benefit of visibility. Her

account as a Black African woman in America shapes her analyses on race and cultural stereotypes. There

is a story where a valet neglected to acknowledge me and in turn believed the male patron was the one who

retained his services. She states:

“The man assumed I was not important simply because I was a woman.”

The unspoken consideration is that race and class matter; had she been a Black woman in another context,

possibly impoverished, lacking education, or undocumented, she could have faced different repercussions.

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Therefore, while her anecdotes are personal, they reveal deeper systems of power which shape the ways

women’s autonomy is recognized or invalidated according to their social location.

3. Class and Economic Agency in Women’s Lives

Adichie tackles the issue of how access to economic resources or the lack of it impacts a woman’s freedom

and mobility. She features a nostalgic cultural practice in Nigeria where men are expected to take on the

financial burden of women. She writes:

“The man is expected to provide and when the woman does, she is seen as threatening.”

Here we encounter class along with gender: economic dependence is framed as a virtue for women while

financial independence by women within marriage is viewed as emasculating and derogatory. This principle

not only hampers women’s economic choices but also polices their social acceptability. Here class status

ceases to be purely an economic classification; it becomes laden with ethics. Adichie further explores how

professional women who earn more than their spouses are often subjected to intense scrutiny. The

underlying assumption that such autonomy could threaten heteronormative order underscores the extent,

depth, and rigidity of gendered roles organized by social class . Even married professional women “shrink”

their achievements out of anticipation—and damage control—of perceived assault on male dignity.

Once again, Crenshaw’s framework demonstrates its significance. Economic advantage can protect some

women from some forms of oppression, but not all. A wealthy woman may escape some economic

dependencies, but still faces countervailing social expectations. On the other hand, a working-class woman

is likely to confront heightened restrictions—serving primarily patriarchal interests justified by economic

struggle.

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4. Local vs. Global Feminism: The Politics of Translation

Adichie’s feminism faces the challenge of balancing appreciation for Nigerian audiences while engaging

with a Western audience that is used to certain narratives. Her attention on contextual relevance is

exemplified in her quote, “Culture does not make people. People make culture.”

This claim, although seemingly straightforward, evokes a need for nuanced analysis of culture without

succumbing to the notion that African women must bear oppression in the name of tradition. At the same

time, it pushes back against the domination of Western feminist discourse—which ignores local feminisms

and historicizes context—with no regard to its meanings.

Adichie’s critique invokes a reconsideration of international feminist alliances. She suggests that instead of

assuming gendered oppression as a collective experience, solidarity can be built from shared values of

justice, equity, and listening. Her essay challenges both aspects of Nigerian patriarchy and the global

feminist establishment which predominantly invites white Western voices to the conversation. Her work is

therefore an exercise in translation—not of language, but political sensibility. Thus, global feminism must

not reduce women’s experiences into a single narrative; rather, it should make room for feminisms rooted

in particular contexts. Adichie achieves this narratively—using story to illuminate what theory conceals.

5. Storytelling as Feminist Resistance

The most profound aspect of Adichie’s feminism is perhaps her use of narrative as a form of resistance.

Telling stories makes valid a technique which in academia is often neglected. Narrative turns to data.

Feelings convert to proof. She states:

“I decided to call myself a Feminist. And I say it wherever I am, and I say it with pride.”

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This statement goes beyond political positioning; it is also a refusal to stay quiet. In times when women’s

stories are often categorized as trivial or overly emotional, Adichie challenges the status quo by asserting

that experience can be a source of knowledge. This pluralizes the landscape between theory and story,

academic feminism and lived reality, disrupting dominance in sociopolitical relations.

In narrating her own experiences, she enables others to do the same. The emotional intensity of her

reflections, in tandem with the clarity of her observations and the accessibility of her language, makes her

work an enticing invitation for young women in comparable situations to perceive feminism as a movement

that accommodates their realities rather than something foreign or aristocratic. Through deeply personal yet

structurally conscious lenses, she reveals how gendered oppression is not ever absolute or singular. It is

perpetually conditioned by race, class, and culture; acknowledging that helps us move toward a feminism

that genuinely respects the real diversity of women’s lives.

Conclusion:

Women’s autonomy is usually viewed as a voice that must be found, society must be resisted and choice

shall be made. While Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reminds us in We Should All Be Feminists that Finding

one’s voice cannot happen alone—autonomy is always intertwined with culture, economy, race, gender and

the persistent yet invisible structure of privilege and oppression.

Besides calling out for feminism, Adichie's text does an intersectional analysis without having to name it

explicitly. Weaving her narratives of women getting dismissed at restaurants, or a mother who works but

does not think of it as work because she has always done so without receiving monetary compensation

serves to normalize social hierarchies—it becomes naturalized reality in sequential order. Such moments

go beyond patriarchal sexism; they are what Crenshaw calls compounded marginalization—for where

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gender clashes face race, class and cultural identity addition bends them into one distinctive structure of

subjugation.

As described here, autonomy is stratified as some women are able to navigate societal landscapes while

others remain stuck due to intersecting barriers. The struggle between local cultural norms and global

feminist ideals highlights the fact that feminism cannot be transplanted into every situation without

adaptation. It must emerge through attentive engagement with local voices and historical consciousness

considering how structures rather than mere attitudes sustain inequality and how we might begin

dismantling them.

That expansion relies on a feminist ethics of intersectionality—that does not settle for symbolic gestures or

universal slogans but demands transformation at the level of structure, culture and lived experiences.

Perhaps this is Adichie’s work’s greatest challenge and deepest promise.

References

Adichie, C. N. (2014). We Should All Be Feminists. New York, NY: Anchor Books.

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of

antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum,

1989(1), 139–167.

Collins, P. H. (2000). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of

Empowerment (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

hooks, b. (1981). Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston, MA: South End Press.

Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham,

NC: Duke University Press.

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Narayan, U. (1997). Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism. New York:

Routledge.

Ogundipe-Leslie, M. (1994). Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transformations. Trenton,

NJ: Africa World Press.

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