Meghan Markle talks about her baby being a feminist at International Women's Day event
'If there’s a justice and a lack of inequality someone needs to say something - and why not you?'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Duchess of Sussex has said she hopes her baby will be a feminist during a panel discussion to celebrate International Women’s Day.
On Friday 8 March, the Duchess of Sussex joined a group of women including singer Annie Lennox and model Adwoa Aboah to debate issues facing women around the world at an event hosted by the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust at King’s College London.
During the discussion, Markle – who is due to give birth to her first child in Spring – spoke of her “little bump” and the feminist beliefs she hopes to impart on them growing up.
Referencing Johanna Demetrakas’s 2018 film Feminists – What Were They Thinking? Markle said: “I’d seen this documentary on Netflix on feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy was, ‘I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism’.
“I love that. So boy or girl or whatever it is, we hope that that’s the case, our little bump.”
Speaking of the importance of International Women’s Day, Markle agreed with Lennox that women “must be global feminists and include men and boys”.
“If there’s a justice and a lack of inequality someone needs to say something – and why not you?” the duchess asked the audience at the event.
The 37-year-old, who has just been named the vice president of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, also responded to a question about her views of the media describing her feminist beliefs as “trendy”.
“I don’t read anything, it’s much safer that way, but equally that’s just my own personal preference because I think positive or negative it can all sort of just feel like noise to a certain extent these days, as opposed to getting muddled with that to focus on the real cause,” she said.
“So for me I think the idea of making the word feminism trendy, that doesn’t make any sense to me personally, right? This is something that is going to be part of the conversation forever.”
Explaining why she feels impassioned to use her high-profile status to empower women, the royal said: “It would be impossible for me to sit back and not do something about it.
“And I think, you know, looking at my role, and I’m very very privileged to have now with the QCT, just expands that platform to be able to go to 53 Commonwealth countries and do this level of work all across the globe because again, it is about global feminism, it is about a parity and equality for all of us. It started at 11, but still feels like it’s just beginning!”
Markle has long been a proud feminist and delivered several speeches in recent years about the importance of gender parity.
Aged 11, Markle successfully campaigned for consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G), to change an advert that used gender-specific language to sell washing up liquid with a tagline that read: “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.”
P&G later changed the ad’s wording, replacing “women” with “people”, as a direct result of the royal’s input.
Read more about International Women’s Day here.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments