Legal discrimination between the sexes is, in almost every instance, founded on outmoded views of society and the pre-scientific beliefs about psychology and physiology. It is time to sweep away these relics of the past and set further generations free of them.
Interpretation
The quote calls for the end of outdated gender discrimination based on old societal beliefs.
Shirley Chisholm emphasizes the need to eliminate legal discrimination against the sexes, which is rooted in antiquated societal norms and misconceptions about gender differences. She advocates for progress and liberation from these outdated beliefs, urging society to pave the way for future generations to thrive without the constraints of historical prejudice.
In practice
In a speech advocating for women's rights, one might use this quote to highlight the need for change.
I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.
I stand before you today to repudiate the ridiculous notion that the American people will not vote for qualified candidates simply because he is not white or because she is not a male.
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, 'It's a girl.'
I know that millions of Americans from all walks of life agree with me that leadership does not mean putting the ear to the ground to follow public opinion, but to have the vision of what is necessary and the courage to make it possible.
Of course laws will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings. But that is no reason to allow prejudice to continue to be enshrined in our laws - to perpetuate injustice through inaction.
I want history to remember me... not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.
Civilization, like an airplane in flight, survives only as it keeps going forward.
These places I've seen have clubbed my mind - they are so poor and depressing. I don't know what we can do to help these people, but we've got to do something.
In any situation that we find in our lives, when there is something that we feel should be better, we must exert effort to try and make it better. So it's the same socially, musically, politically in any department of our lives.
The invisible is only another unexplored country, a brave new world.
I think what I'd really like to see would be a mass consciousness-raising movement so that we would all become vegetarian.
In this new world economy, national boundaries are increasingly becoming obsolete.
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