Nigeria’s renowned writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has taken her feminism a bit higher after she threw a question at the Ex-US presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, the reason why her Twitter bio starts with ‘wife’, rather than her achievements on her.
Punch newspaper had reported that the two were talking at a PEN World Voices Festival lecture that was organized at the Cooper Union in Manhattan on Sunday when Chimamanda asked the ex-FLOTUS while she was having an interview with her:
“In your Twitter account, the first word that describes you is ‘Wife.’ And then I think it’s ‘Mom,’ and then it’s ‘Grandmother.
fAnd when I saw that, I have to confess that I felt just a little bit upset. And then I went and I looked at your husband’s Twitter account, and the first word was not ‘husband.’”
Bill Clinton’s Twitter bio starts with, “Founder, Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States.”
Adichie was curious to know if it was Clinton’s choice to first be known in relation to her spouse, and if so, what’s the reason for that.
Responding to her question, Hillary said this:
“When you put it like that, I’m going to change it.”
Hillary laughed, before saying that women should be able to celebrate both their professional and personal accolades. She went on to quote the late ex-First Lady Barbara Bush, who said this:
“At the end of the day, it won’t matter if you got a raise, it won’t matter if you wrote a great book, if you are not also someone who values relationships.
Clinton continued by saying:
“It shouldn’t be either/or. It should be that if you are someone who is defining yourself by what you do and what you accomplish and that is satisfying, then more power to you.
That is how you should be thinking about your life, and living it.
If you are someone who primarily defines your life in relationship to others, then more power to you, and live that life the way Barbara Bush lived that life, and how proud she was to do it.
“But I think most of us as women in today’s world end up in the middle. Wanting to have relationships, wanting to invest in them, nurture them, but also pursuing our own interests, Clinton concluded.
