Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Quote

Because human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the mostimportant attribute for survival; the physically stronger person was more likely to lead.And men in general are physically stronger. (There are of course many exceptions.)Today, we live in a vastly diʃerent world. The person more qualiɹed to lead is not thephysically stronger person. It is the more intelligent, the more knowledgeable, the morecreative, more innovative. And there are no hormones for those attributes. A man is aslikely as a woman to be intelligent, innovative, creative. We have evolved. But ourideas of gender have not evolved very much.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Because human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the mostimportant attribute for survival; the physically stronger person was more likely to lead.And men in general are physically stronger. (There are of course many exceptions.)Today, we live in a vastly diʃerent world. The person more qualiɹed to lead is not thephysically stronger person. It is the more intelligent, the more knowledgeable, the morecreative, more innovative. And there are no hormones for those attributes. A man is aslikely as a woman to be intelligent, innovative, creative. We have evolved. But ourideas of gender have not evolved very much.

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About Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ( ; born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer, novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright in postcolonial feminist literature. Her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), was centered on the Nigerian Civil War and has been translated into many languages. Along with Purple Hibiscus were the novels Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and Americanah (2013). Her other works include the book essays We Should All Be Feminists (2014); Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017); a memoir tribute to her father, Notes on Grief (2021); and a children's book, Mama's Sleeping Scarf (2023).
A native of Abba, Anambra State, Adichie's childhood was influenced by postcolonial rule in Nigeria, including the aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War, which took the lives of both of her grandfathers and was a major theme of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. She excelled in academics and attended the University of Nigeria, where she initially studied pharmacy. She moved to the United States at 19 to study communications and political science at Drexel University in Philadelphia before transferring to and graduating from Eastern Connecticut State University, later receiving a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University. Adichie first published the poetry collection Decisions in 1997, which was followed by a play, For Love of Biafra, in 1998. In less than ten years, she published eight books: novels, book essays and collections, memoirs, and children's books. Adichie has cited Chinua Achebe—in whose house she lived while at the University of Nigeria—Buchi Emecheta, and other authors as inspirations; her style juxtaposes Western influences and the Igbo language and culture.
Adichie's words on feminism were encapsulated in her 2009 TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists", which was adapted into a book of the same title in 2014. Most of her works were against the dangers of segregation and delves the themes of immigration, racism, gender, marrige, motherhood and womanhood. In 2023, she made statements about LGBT rights in Nigeria in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, after which she was criticized for being transphobic.
Adichie has received several academic awards and fellowship grants. She was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing and has won the O. Henry Award, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the PEN Pinter Prize, among others. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.