Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions - Couverture rigide

“Adichie’s suggestions are logical and stated clearly, full of her dry wit, and range from the obvious (‘Do it together’) to the bold (‘Reject likeability’). The more radical suggestions are the ones that encourage mothers to be complete human beings, not merely ‘hosts.’ And as much as this is a book written to mothers of daughters, fathers of daughters would benefit from reading it, too; parents in general would do well to try to raise children who won't have to grow up and read it at all . . . Powerful and life-affirming, offering wisdom for everyone.” —Nia Hampton, The Village Voice
 
“Personal and urgent . . . Adichie is passionate about equality. Her new book offers 15 ways that we can encourage girls to be strong, to plant seeds of feminism. But more than that, Adichie hopes the book will help ‘move us toward a world that is more gender equal.’ Doing so means knocking down ingrained assumptions about how men and women think and behave.” —Nora Krug, The Washington Post
 
“In We Should All Be Feminists, Adichie distilled the essence of feminism into a powerful treatise. Now, in Dear Ijeawele, she goes a step further and covers every feminist topic you can imagine–domestic chores, gendered language, female sexuality, objectification, race, and much more. I am amazed at Adichie’s ability to communicate so effectively and efficiently. If you liked We Should All Be Feminists, you will LOVE Dear Ijeawele.” —Kate Scott, Book Riot, “The Best Books We Read in February”
 
“Wise but funny and thought-provoking.” —Stephanie Topacio Long, Bustle, “The 20 Best Nonfiction Books Coming in March 2017”
 
“Adichie has partly written Dear Ijeawele to reclaim the word feminism from its abusers and misusers. Her advice is not only to provide children with alternatives—to empower boys and girls to understand there is no single way to be—but also to understand that the only universal in this world is difference.  Adichie is a brilliant novelist and a serious thinker, and she is also someone who makes no apology for her own trivial interests. Her understanding of feminism is intertwined with her understanding that we all want to be more than one thing.” —Emma Brockes, The Guardian (UK)

New York Times Best Seller
A Skimm Reads Pick
An NPR Best Book of 2017

From the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists comes a powerful new statement about feminism today--written as a letter to a friend.

A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie's letter of response.
     Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions--compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive--for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.