Speaking at an International Women’s Day event, the Duchess of Sussex has said that she would like her unborn child to be a feminist, whether they are a girl or a boy.
The Duchess made the admission during a panel discussion marking International Women’s Day at King’s College London on Friday.
Duchess Meghan joined a panel of trailblazing women including, model and Gurls Talk founder Adwoa Aboah, musician and founder of The Circle NGO Annie Lennox, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership Chair Julia Gillard, Let Us Learn founder Chrisann Jarrett, and CAMFED Executive Director Angeline Murimirwa.
At one point during the discussion she told the audience that she had recently been watching a documentary on feminism.
“One of the things they said during pregnancy was ‘I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism’,” she told an audience at King’s College London.
“I loved that – boy or girl, whatever it is, we hope that’s the case.”
Asked how she felt about headlines that called her feminism “trendy,” the UK’s Press Association reported the 37-year-old Duchess as saying, “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.”
The Duchess of Sussex has previously made several statements on the importance of empowering and educating women, but at Friday’s event she was really able to make her voice heard alongside fellow change-makers.
“It’s not just about girls going to school and becoming smart women, it’s knowing that those smart girls become influential women and that ends up changing the world for the better,” the Duchess told the audience.
She went on to say that “men can understand that they can be feminists” and should feel comfortable about women being by their side, rather than behind them.
The Duchess’s comments were made after she was asked about how her baby bump was treating her, to which she replied “very well”.
Friday’s event was organised by the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, to which Duchess Meghan was named the Trust’s vice president on the same day.
