“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you would threaten the man. Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.”

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About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nigerian writer

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer known for fiction, nonfiction, and lectures. She is a leading voice in postcolonial feminist literature. Her work crosses genres, but remains closely associated with questions of gender, power, identity, and the legacies of colonial history. She has become widely recognised for writing that speaks to those themes with clarity and force.

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Books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah

2017

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Half of a Yellow Sun

2006

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The Thing Around Your Neck

2009

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We Should All Be Feminists

2015

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Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

2018

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