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Summary
Media personality Adeife Adeoye’s claim that “you can’t be a feminist and be broke” is misleading. While financial independence supports women’s empowerment, feminism is rooted in equality and rights for all women, not wealth or economic status.
Claim
On October 16, 2025, Nigerian entertainment blog, Yabaleftonline, shared a video on X featuring media personality Adeife Adeoye captioned, “You can’t be a feminist and be broke.” Instablog Naija also shared the same claim.
The post went viral, garnering 91 comments, 21.6k views, 58 reposts, and 330 likes. In the video, Adeife said that feminism isn’t just about opinions but about having options and, in her words, “you don’t have options when you don’t have money.”
She added that financial dependence keeps many women trapped in bad relationships and situations, concluding that “financial independence is the new feminism.”
NFM Checks
In simple terms, feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights based on the equality of the sexes. It is also the belief that women should have equal rights, opportunities, and value, and not be treated as second-class citizens.
Financial independence is the state of having sufficient income from sources other than a job to cover your living expenses.
According to the UN Women – Facts & Figures: Economic Empowerment, feminism advocates for equal rights and opportunities for all, not just financially independent women. It notes that women around the world still face major barriers to equal participation in the workforce, including restrictive laws and lower pay.
They also have limited access to resources like land and business funding.
Despite their contributions, women continue to experience pay inequality, discrimination, and economic losses from unpaid care work and workplace violence.
UN Women also reports that women earn 23% less than men, perform 76% of unpaid care work, and over 388 million women and girls live in extreme poverty
The Women’s Budget Group notes that while economic justice is central to feminist economics, it should not be mistaken as the definition of feminism itself, since the movement extends far beyond money.
These statistics show that poverty is a feminist issue, not a reason to dismiss someone’s feminist activism.
Experts Speak
Addressing the claim, Naija Feminists founder Simbiat Bakare said the claimant has a misunderstanding of what feminism is, explaining that feminism is an ideology, not defined by one’s wealth or poverty, adding,
“It is not entirely true that women refuse to leave bad situations because of money,” she said. “Rich women stay in abusive relationships because they don’t want to be tagged as divorcees or single mothers.”
Feminist and gender advocate Oluwafunmbi Ogunsola noted that saying “you can’t be broke and be a feminist” reduces feminism, a movement for collective liberation, to pocket-watching. She explained that feminism fights for women across all classes and recognises that economically disadvantaged women often bear the worst impact of patriarchy.
“Before sidelining the very group it seeks to uplift, it’s important to first understand what feminism truly stands for.”
Social Media Users React
The claim by Adeife Adeoye also generated various opinions online by women, with many social media users disagreeing with the statement.
A user on Facebook, Wapah Kelechi Ezeigwe, addresses the misconception in the statement, saying:
“Money is not the prerequisite for one identifying as a feminist. Being feminist is a consciousness; it is being aware of one’s humanity as a woman and how it intersects with a society that is hugely patriarchal. It is a consciousness of societal imbalance that structurally exists between men and women, and how women are on the receiving end of being less privileged.
“However, if we are to evaluate what she is trying to assert, it may lean towards capitalism and how it makes women dependent on men; hence, feminism is weakened. So I think, her statement in my perspective would be better understood as, feminism won’t thrive effectively if the system of capitalism is not RADICALLY restructured to equally benefit women or better-still, totally dismantled.”
X user @_MsLinda noted that while the message might be well intentioned, the wrapping of the message came out wrong.
She said: “Feminism is not a luxury brand or a badge of honour for the liberated. Feminism is for all of us. Feminism, by definition, is especially for those marginalised by class or appearance. We are all worthy and deserve fairness and equity.”
Similarly, @muntuwabende said: “Unfortunately, feminism has historically been a movement of the middle classes. Feminists must reckon with this legacy and confront how classism continues to shape discourse and practice today”
Conclusion
The claim is misleading; there is no data or statistics to support the claim that broke women cannot be feminists.
Naija Feminists Media is committed to fighting gendered disinformation and misinformation that concerns women.
