Pregnant Meghan Markle Participates in an International Women’s Day Panel, Like the Feminist She Is

The duchess was one of five on “a special panel of female thought-leaders and activists to discuss a range of issues affecting women today,” according to the original announcement for the panel on Kensington Palace’s official Twitter account.

As to be expected, Meg had a lot to say on the subject — considering she has spoken out on feminism on many occasions during her time in the public eye, we knew she’d have a lot of opinions.

“I think the idea of feminism and whatever stigmatization surrounds that word in and of itself … making it global feminism changes that conversation immediately,” the duchess said of women making their voices heard in videos obtained by InStyle.

“But for men to understand they can be feminists as well,  I mean, I think when we talk about gender stereotypes shifting, what it means to be masculine, what it means to be feminine,” she touched on some perspectives that need changing.  “You know, I’ve said for a long time, you can be feminine and a feminist.”

“Your strength includes knowing your vulnerabilities,” she continued. “And your sense of self and security, your confidence, comes in knowing that a woman by your side isn’t something you should feel threatened about, but as opposed to that, you should feel really empowered in having that additional support, that this is really about us working together.”

It’s clear that Meg and her husband, Prince Harry, have that kind of deep mutual partnership she speaks of. It’s not hard to tell when you see them together or hear them speak about one another.

“That’s what gender equality means to me,” she continued. “And having men part of that conversation to say, ‘There’s nothing threatening about a woman coming up to the same level.”

“This is our power and our strength as a team. So… and that’s gender neutral if you really think about it. So I hope that men are part of the conversation. My husband certainly is,” she revealed. Harry the feminist forever!

The duchess did throw in a bit of her signature wit amongst the serious talk, though. “I’ve actually been joking in the past few weeks, I had seen this documentary on Netflix about feminism and one of the things they said during pregnancy is, ‘I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism,’” she laughed.

“I loved that, so boy or girl, or whatever it is, we hope that’s the case,” she revealed. We too would love the royal baby to be the most feminist-y feminist to ever feminist. It would really just be the icing on the cake of what is already such a kind and conscious family.

Though Meg hasn’t revealed her exact due date, the royal baby is said to be expected in the spring, and well, it looks like we’re inching closer and closer every day!

The duchess was even asked during the panel about her lack of a social media presence — definitely something fans are curious about — and how that relates to her activism. Her answer was pretty killer, TBH.

“I don’t read anything,” she explained. “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,” she explained. We love that she thinks big picture and we can’t wait to see more from her on these topics. Go Meg!