What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened.
Vivian GornickRead
Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession... The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn't be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote challenges the perception of housewifery as a legitimate profession and advocates for women's autonomy in choosing their roles.
Vivian Gornick's quote critiques traditional gender roles that label housewives’ work as illegitimate, highlighting the need for societal change regarding women’s choices. It emphasizes that the identity of a woman should not be confined to familial roles, but rather that women should have the freedom to choose how they contribute to society, including their role as family-makers.
Themes
FeminismHousewifeChoiceAutonomyGender RolesSocietal Change
In practice
Example use cases
During a women's conference, to highlight the importance of recognizing women's choices in career and family.
More from Vivian Gornick
All quotes →Similar quotes
There is a widespread assumption that simply because my generation of women has the good fortune to live in a world touched by the feminist movement, that means everything we do is magically imbued with its agenda, but it doesn't work that way.
Ariel LevyRead
The issues that matter to women also matter to communities... and these issues have a ripple effect all across the country. And the purist sense of the feminist tradition - feminism is not anti-man. It is pro-humanity.
Nina TurnerRead
It's because I'm a feminist that I can't stand women limiting other women's imaginations. It really makes me angry.
A. S. ByattRead
We need a new kind of feminism, one that stresses personal responsibility and is open to art and sex in all their dark, unconsoling mysteries. The feminist of the fin de si?cle will be bawdy, streetwise, and on-the-spot confrontational, in the prankish Sixties way.
Camille PagliaRead
When I was a baby feminist, leading feminist thinkers were insisting that if women ran the world, there would be no sadism or war.
Naomi WolfRead
Superwoman is the adversary of the women's movement.
Gloria SteinemRead