Chimamanda Adichie: “Because Hillary Clinton Is a Woman, She Is Judged Too Harshly”

With the US election barely days away, Chimamanda Adichie contributes her bit to getting America’s first ever female president elected. Adichie has always been open about her support for Hillary Clinton in this election, but in this piece published in The Atlantic, she makes a clear case in defense of those who love Hillary Clinton.

She enumerates Hillary Clinton’s sterling qualities as an accomplished leader while also calling out the misogyny that has painted her in an unfairly bad light in public discourse.

The essay is essentially a political love letter from one successful woman to another. A must read!

At least we know who Adichie—who is an American citizen—plans to vote for.

Here are excerpts of the article:

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We do not see, often enough, the people who love Hillary Clinton, who support her because of her qualifications rather than because of her unqualified opponent, who empathize with her. Yet millions of Americans, women and men, love her intelligence, her industriousness, her grit; they feel loyal to her, they will vote with enthusiasm for her.

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Hillary Clinton was guilty immediately when she stepped into the view of the American public as the first lady of Arkansas. She was a lawyer full of dreams. She had made sacrifices for the man she loved, waived her plans, and moved to his state. But she also dared to think herself her husband’s equal, to assume herself competent enough to take on expanding access to healthcare and reforming the Arkansas public education system. She was guilty of not being a traditional first lady. She offended the old patriarchal order. The conservative media loathed her.

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