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Bookstore Gives Free Copies of We Should All Be Feminists for Inauguration Day

By January 20, 2017Bookshops, News, Political

Whatever you feel about the incoming American administration there’s no denying that the way Donald Trump has spoken about women has at times felt outdated and old fashioned. Today is the inauguration and many fear the new presidency will take women’s rights back many years.

Broadway Books in Portland, Oregon feel the same and that’s why today they are giving away free copies of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists on Inauguration Day.

Broadway Books was founded by women, 25-years ago and the store is still owned by women today. They say they are giving the copies away because they want to “kick off the new year by celebrating the power of woman to do great things.” In the shop’s newsletter it was announced that…

“We chose Inauguration Day for this giveaway because when we inaugurate a new president and bring in a new administration it’s a time of new beginnings and new challenges, a chance to reflect on where we are as a country, where we want to go, and how we want to get there. We found the words of this international voice to be particularly inspiring and wanted to share them with our customers. We encourage you to come early to get a copy!”

We Should All Be Feminists is an essay based on a popular TEDx talk given by Adichie in 2012 and is considered so influential that a Woman’s Lobby wanted to give every 16-year-old in Sweden a copy, and Beyonce also sampled the talk on Flawless, here’s an excerpt:

“Some people ask: ‘Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?’”

“Because that would be […] a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women.”

As women around the world will well know, feminism isn’t just women’s business and it’s as much the business of world leaders as anyone else, even if, or maybe especially if they are men. Here’s hoping the new administration can keep women’s rights as much in the forefront as it has been for the last eight years.



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