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.
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
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?
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.
All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
Obviously, there is much similarity among the challenges of transgender people and all women - from health care to harassment to discrimination in the workplace.
Similar quotes
I was brought up in a family which valued natural history. Both my parents knew the names of all the British wildflowers, so as we went walking the country, I was constantly being exposed to a natural history sort of knowledge.
I always knew I wanted kids, but when my mom passed away I was like, 'I want a bunch of kids. I want three kids or four kids, and I want to have that relationship again.' I can't bring my mom back, but I can have children.
If you have children, you know you're responsible for somebody. You realize you are being imitated; your belief systems and priorities have a direct influence on these children, who are like flowers in a garden.
Motherhood isn't just a series of contractions; it's a state of mind. From the moment we know life is inside us, we feel a responsibility to protect and defend that human being.
Perhaps it takes courage to raise children.
Children can be your heartache. But that doesn't matter, you have to go on and have them . . . it works out.