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Summary
Oluwabukola Oseni rejects the claim that only wealthy women can be feminists, arguing that feminism is rooted in challenging systems that tie women’s worth to men, marriage, or money.
So apparently, an influencer said: “You can’t be a feminist if you’re broke.”
I laughed. Not the ha-ha laugh of amusement but that hollow, exhausted laugh women reserve for NEPA bills and men who call cheating a mistake.
Does money help? A fat yes! But it doesn’t make one a feminist. Feminism is not about how much money you have. It’s about challenging systems that make women’s worth dependent on men, marriage, or money. Saying broke women can’t be feminists erases everything feminism stands for.
It nullifies the voices of activists, teachers, students, single mothers, and everyday women who organise, protest and nurture communities while still fighting patriarchy without financial privilege.
Let’s be real. Most privileged women don’t even identify with the ideology. Take Folorunso Alakija for instance. She often reinforces patriarchal ideals by downplaying her professional achievements and amplifying her marital humility a narrative men of her stature would never have entertained.
Saying you need money to identify with the movement is laughable, seeing the countless affluent Osinachis who refused to leave abusive marriages despite their financial insulation. Feminism is not a Gucci accessory. It’s not a designer ideology that comes alive only under ring light and privilege. It’s not classism wrapped in body butter and empowerment quotes.
At its root, feminism was midwifed by women who had nothing but audacity. Women who walked through fire and called it freedom. History is filled with feminists who lived in thatched houses.
Rosa Parks was a tired seamstress, not a NEPO baby. She refused to stand up from a bus seat, and in that refusal, an empire shook.
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, the Lioness of Lisabi, led barefoot women against colonial oppression with nothing but her wrapper and righteous anger.
History is replete with many Malala Yousafzais from humble backgrounds, girls who were killed for demanding equality. So no, my dear influencer, broke women are not excluded from feminism.
They are the soil from which it grew. They are its architects, its lungs, its heartbeat.
And if your feminism begins at your wallet and ends at your wardrobe, what you’re practising is not feminism. It is capitalism wearing a feminist filter.
Editor’s note: The author first published this article on Facebook.
