We learn best to listen to our own voices if we are listening at the same time to other women-whose stories, for all our differences, turn out, if we listen well, to be our stories also.
Barbara DemingRead
We learn best to listen to our own voices if we are listening at the same time to other women - whose stories, for all our differences, turn out, if we listen well, to be our stories also.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We deepen our understanding of ourselves by listening to the experiences of others, particularly women.
This quote from Barbara Deming highlights the importance of listening to the stories and experiences of women to cultivate a better understanding of our own identities. It suggests that while we may have different backgrounds and viewpoints, there are shared experiences and insights that connect us, which enrich our personal learning and growth.
Themes
ListeningStoriesWomenIdentityConnection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a women's empowerment workshop to emphasize the strength found in shared narratives.
More from Barbara Deming
All quotes →What is the revolution that we need? We need to dissolve the lie that some people have a right to think of other people as their property. And we need at last to form a circle that includes us all, in which all of us are seen as equal... We do not belong to the other, but our lives are linked; we belong in a circle of others.
Barbara DemingRead
Similar quotes
When you are in the final days of your life, what will you want? Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn't they matter most now?
Max LucadoRead
When two people are together, they are not two but six: what each one is, what each one thinks he or she is, and what each one thinks the other is. And what is true for people is also true for countries and organisations.
Antonio GuterresRead
Mom told me, “It probably gets pretty lonely to be Grandma, don’t you think?” I told her, “It probably gets pretty lonely to be anyone
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
When a Cat adopts you, and I am not superstitious at all I don't mean only Black cats there is nothing to be done about it except to put up with it and wait until the wind changes.
T. S. EliotRead
Someone will ask later, sometimes searching for a name, his own or someone's else's why I neglected his sadness or his love... But I didn't have enough time or ink for everyone. Or maybe it was the strain of the city, of time the cold heart of the clocks.
Pablo NerudaRead
I get kind of, um, bored by all the sexuality and gender labels because I feel like that's where the problem comes in, when people feel that they need to have these particular identities. If you didn't have these labels, and you just acted on how you genuinely felt at any point, then you wouldn't have anything to contend with.
Tig NotaroRead