We Should All Be Feminists, the internationally acclaimed TED talk (later developed into a published essay) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, will be handed out to every 16-year-old in Sweden as a part of a giveaway by the Swedish Women’s Lobby and publisher Albert Bonniers. The lobby hopes the text will “work as a stepping stone for a discussion about gender equality and feminism.”

Clara Berglund of the Swedish Women’s Lobby states, “This is the book that I wish all of my male classmates would have read when I was 16. It feels so important to contribute to this project. It is a gift to all second-grade high-school students, but it is also a gift to ourselves and future generations.”


According to The Guardian:

The organizations behind the project, which is supported by the UN Association of Sweden, the Swedish Trade Union Conferation, the Order of the Teaspoon, Unizon and Gertrud Åström, hope that teachers will integrate We Should All Be Feminists into their teaching, and will be distributing discussion guidelines to help.


In a video message to Swedish teens, Adichie—who also authored the New York Times best-selling novel Americanah and had her We Should All Be Feminists speech sampled on Beyoncé’s “***Flawless”—says she hopes “that the 16-year-olds that will read this book in Sweden will also decide that they’re feminists. Mostly, I hope very soon that one day we will not need to be feminists. Because we will live in a world that is truly just and equal.”

“I’m a feminist because I want to live in a world that is more just,” she says. “I’m a feminist because I want to live in a world where a woman is never told that she can or cannot or should or should not do anything because she is a woman. I want to live in a world where men and women are happier. Where they are not constrained by gender roles. I want to live in a world where men and women are truly equal. And that’s why I’m a feminist.”

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The first copies of We Should All Be Feminists were handed out this week at Norra Real high school in Stockholm.

Contact the author at madeleine@jezebel.com .