Why Sisterhood?
Why Sisterhood Matters
In her succinct and powerful treatise entitled We Should All Be Feminists, TEDx speaker and author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie issues a challenge to all of us: “Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
While some contemporary women may not identify with feminism, many can and do relate to the broader concept of sisterhood. “Sisterhood is the sense of community we feel with other women. It’s understanding that our similarities are more powerful than our differences…sisterhood means identifying with other women, in whatever circumstances they may find themselves,” declares Dame Helen Mirren, actress, activist, and ambassador for the Women for Women International nonprofit organization.
Our Sisterhood documentary seeks to show that women’s relationships with each other matter: they make us more resilient, determined, and empowered. And when we honor the full depth and dimension of women’s diversity, we generate solutions that can save our world. In SISTERHOOD: Political Solidarity Between Women, bell hooks observes, “Women do not need to eradicate difference to feel solidarity. We do not need to share [one] common oppression to fight equally to end oppression. We do not need anti-male sentiments to bond us together, so great is the wealth of experience, culture, and ideas we have to share with one another.”
In other words, the answers to our problems lie not in approaching them from one direction, but instead in surrounding them with sisterhood’s inclusive, expansive embrace. This can be summed up in the bold statement from Audre Lorde: “In our [women’s] world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.”
Questions for Discussion
The following questions are meant to spark further thought and discussion. You can use them as journal prompts, conversation starters for classroom discussions, dinner table topics, or even chat about them over coffee with sisters and friends.
-
How do you define sisterhood?
-
How do you support your sisters? How do they support you?
-
How do women who are working together become a sisterhood?
-
What does it take for women to break down barriers and create collective impact?
-
In what ways do you think women and girls are transforming the world?
Further Resources
Bibliography
-
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists. New York: Anchor Books, 2015.
-
hooks, bell. “SISTERHOOD: Political Solidarity between Women.” Feminist Review 23, no. 1 (July 1986): 125–38. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.1986.25.
-
Lorde, Audre. Your Silence Will Not Protect You. UK: Silver Press, 2017.