Shailene Woodley "resonates as a feminist".
The 26-year-old actress previously claimed on two separate occasions that she doesn’t like to label herself as a feminist – meaning someone who is in favour of equal rights for women – as she didn’t want to be "defined" by the term, but has now said she now doesn’t mind the label, as long as her focus stays on "empowering" women.
Speaking to Vulture, she said: "You know, feminism has had so many forms over its many, many decades of being around. To me, I say today that I resonate as a feminist. But take that word out of it – a word is a word, a movement is a movement – practice and action are what actually makes a difference.
"So I can call myself a feminist all day long. Or I can say I’m not a feminist all day long. But if my daily interaction with the world is taking steps to uplift, empower – not only women, but also men in their relationships with women, and women and their relationships with men, and women to women, and improving sisterhood with women, and changing our judicial system to reflect that which society is asking for – that, to me, is where my greatest interest lies."
Previously, the ‘Big Little Lies’ star – who is known to be an activist – said she distanced herself from the term because she believed that labels were divisive.
She said: "The reason why I don’t like to say that I am a feminist or I am not a feminist is because to me it’s still a label. I do not want to be defined by one thing. Why do we have to have that label to divide us? We should all be able to embrace one another regardless of our belief system and regardless of the labels that we have put upon ourselves."
And Shailene also doesn’t like how the term had been twisted to make women seem power hungry.
Speaking in 2014, she said: "No, because I love men, and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance. And also I think that if men went down and women rose to power, that wouldn’t work either. We have to have a fine balance."
Shailene Woodley ‘resonates’ with feminism
