I like high heels and trying on lipsticks. I like politics and history and am happiest when having a good argument about ideas. And I want to be respected in all my femaleness. I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femininity. Because I would have been more comfortable and more fully and truly myself. Had I then the confidence I have now to be myself, my students would have benefited even more from my teaching. I wish I had not worn that ugly suit that day. A man going to a business meeting doesn't wonder about being taken seriously based on what he is wearing-but a woman does.
Many of us think that the less feminine a woman appears, the more likely she is to be taken seriously. The sad truth of the matter is that when it comes to appearance, we start off with men as the standard, as the norm. I wore a very serious, very manly, and very ugly suit. I really wanted to wear my shiny lip gloss and my girly skirt, but I decided not to. And I was worried that if I looked too feminine, I would not be taken seriously. I knew that because I was female, I would automatically have to prove my worth. Instead I was worried about what to wear. Not about the teaching material, because I was well prepared and I was teaching what I enjoyed.
The first time I taught a writing class in graduate school, I was worried. Reprinted by permission from Vintage Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. Copyright © 2012, 2014 by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This is an excerpt from WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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