As we progressed and society advanced women gained opportunities that in 100-200 years ago, society would riot over. This wasn’t always the case, there were times where women couldn’t do anything but stay at home and do chores. Overtime this was solidified into our society and culture that even till this day, there is still discrimination in places about women and their status in work environments. “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and “APEC Women and the Economy Summit” Hillary Clinton both argue for the idea of women in the workforce and how they shouldn’t be confined. However, Clinton makes the more convincing argument of how promoting women in the workplace would benefit almost the whole world.

We as a society today have come a long way in terms of women and men sharing the same roles in society, but there is still things to be changed. In the text “APEC Women and they Economy Summit”, Clinton argues that advancing the rights of women will help us greatly. One of the more important things mentions was when Clinton said “ More of us can contribute to the global GDP. And the gap between the developed and the developing countries would narrow significantly as productivity rises in economies”(Clinton, 2). Clinton is saying that the addition of women helps give a more accurate picture of our GDP. We’ll be able to see how as an entirety our society is doing economically. Not only that but the addition of women in the workforce around the world could make it so there isn’t a enormous gap between us and other countries. Clinton also brings up the the point that “we can bring about a dramatic impact on the competitiveness and growth of our economies” (Clinton, 2).

Then she goes on to say “The productivity gains attribute to the modest increases in the women’s overall share of labor market accounts for approximately one-quarter of the current U.S. GDP. That worlds out to more than three and half trillion dollars, more than the GDP of Germany and more than half the GDPs of both China and Japan.”(Clinton, 5). Clinton claims that competitiveness and then add how the productivity in our country would go up. After, she gives the numbers of how our GDP  is trillions above certain countries. When she puts this information into actual numbers you can see just how impactful this could be.

Society has different expectations for men and women.  Throughout Adichie’s speech she made it known that women and men are and have been treated differently. Not only that but it seems that they are expected to play different roles. One instance was when she talked about her experience in a Nigerian hotel she said that “because the automatic assumption is that a NiIgerian female walking into a hotel alone is a sew woker”(Clinton 3). In here because she was a woman alone the workers didn’t think that she was someone who could afford to stay in a nice hotel like this, but instead a sex worker for hire. However, if she was a man it would be a different story. She then goes on to talk about how women are told how to act and what is expected of how they should behave on (Adichie, 4). It just goes to show how throughout society the ideals of how men and women should act have been rooted deeply in almost everyday life. One of the most prominent examples of this Adichie mentions is the idea of masculinity of men. She said “Yet the boy is expected to bay the bills, always, to prove his masculinity.” (Adichie, 3-4).  Adichie here gives an example of what is believed that society expects form men, That the man has to pay, not show emotion or they have to take the leading role. Throughout the story time and time again demonstrates how men have more privilege in society. One of her first stories was about when was a little girl and how she wanted to be the class monitor. In order to be the class monitor one had to get the highest score on a test. Adichie had gotten the highest score, but then position was given to the boy in second place because they said the monitor had to be a guy (Adichie, 2). This is especially important because this in a way reflects everyday society where men get certain for being a man, thus showing that us as an a society no matter how much we deny follow with this behavior. There was also the talk of the Lilly Ledbetter Law where in Adichie’s simple terms were men get paid more than women. 

Even though both sides argue for the same thing and both give great examples, I believe that Clinton’s claim would be more impactful. Adichie uses personal experience to make her argument, which would help connect more with people emotionally. Adicheie’s speech had more of a sense of humor added into it. However, Clinton’s speech had more date and facts, but also certain statements to gain sympathy. One example is when Clinton said “some don’t have the power to confer citizenship on their children, so their families have less access to housing and education, abd they must constantly renew residency permits making it harder for them to work.” (Adichie, 5-6). This really shows how women are struggling and how advancements in the workplace and society could really help them. Unlike Adichie’s where it was an event that happened throughout her life. Another important component was the addition of showing how much money of GDP increased by. The reason being because nowadays money is important, no matter how much someone says they don’t care about money it is still apart of their lives. With this being said, Clinton making her argument by saying how our GDP is trillions of dollars more than others, how women being able to work and spend greatly help boost our economy, would make a more convincing argument. 

As a result, even though both Adichie and Clinton are advocating for the advancement of women’s roles in society, when it came to how they presented it Clinton did it better. While Adichie did well playing to the humanity and humor in the audience, Clinton gave evidence using statistics and money that I believe would do better swaying people in today’s society.

Works Cited

Clinton, H. R. (2011, September 16). Remarks at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Women and the economy summit. U.S. Department of State. 2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2011/09/172605.htm