And in an age of anti-trans bathroom laws and unprecedented public visibility of transgender people in society, that debate has taken on new urgency and relevance.

That’s because Adichie’s comments touched on a long-running, often deeply divisive debate within feminism over what womanhood really means. While some transgender people appreciated Adichie’s apology, the controversy still hasn’t gone away.

She said that while trans women face tremendous oppression and must be supported, we should also be able to acknowledge real differences between transgender women and women who are not transgender, without suggesting that one experience is more important or valid than the other. In an interview on Britain’s Channel 4 News, Adichie said: “When people talk about, ‘Are trans women women?’ my feeling is trans women are trans women.”Īdichie’s critics say these remarks implied that trans women aren’t “real women” - a stereotype that transgender people constantly struggle against and find deeply offensive.Īdichie, who is also an LGBTQ-rights advocate in Nigeria, has since apologized and tried to clarify what she meant. Now, though, some feminists are sharply criticizing Adichie for comments she made about transgender women. Her star rose even higher after Beyoncé sampled her well-known TED talk, “ We Should All Be Feminists.” Adichie’s simple challenge - that for all of our sakes, men and women alike must actively work to change a gender-unequal culture - resonated deeply with many. By 2013, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was already a literary sensation known the world over for her beautiful prose and complex, lively characters.

We should all feminist