I have me brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words.
Gloria SteinemRead
The family is the basic cell of government: it is where we are trained to believe that we are human beings or that we are chattel, it is where we are trained to see the sex and race divisions and become callous to injustice even if it is done to ourselves, to accept as biological a full system of authoritarian government.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The family unit is foundational in shaping our beliefs and attitudes towards society and authority.
This quote emphasizes that the family serves as the primary foundation for our understanding of humanity and governance. Gloria Steinem argues that the lessons we learn within our family structures can influence our perspectives on societal roles, divisions based on sex and race, and our acceptance of authority. If families instill negative beliefs about injustice and dehumanization, then individuals may perpetuate these ideas in broader society.
Themes
FamilyBeliefsTrainingAuthorityInjustice
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing social justice, one could say, 'As Gloria Steinem noted, the family is the basic cell of government and shapes our understanding of injustice.'
More from Gloria Steinem
All quotes →If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?
Gloria SteinemRead
Age brings a freedom. When you're young, you're much more subject to the idea of what feminine is or how you should look or how you should behave.
Gloria SteinemRead
All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.
Gloria SteinemRead
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
Gloria SteinemRead
Obviously, there is much similarity among the challenges of transgender people and all women - from health care to harassment to discrimination in the workplace.
Gloria SteinemRead
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On the whole, my family had always adopted a reserved attitude toward Zionism; my great-uncle Edmond had acted on his own in generously supporting Jewish Palestine, for reasons more humanitarian and religious than political. But the devastation caused by the war and the extermination of six million Jews radically changed all of our former attitudes. The idea of a Jewish homeland acquired an intense emotional appeal; I myself became an ardent Zionist.
Guy De RothschildRead