Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

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. Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions–compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive–for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Offering advice such as teaching a young girl to read widely and recognize the role of language in reinforcing unhealthy cultural norms; encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about appearance, identity, and sexuality; and debunking the myths that women are somehow biologically designed to be in the kitchen, 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. Dear Ijeawele, Or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions is licensed for publication in 19 languages. Winner of the Grand Prix de l’Héroïne Madame Figaro (nonfiction), 2017