QuoteProject
Like so many women, I was living out the unlived life of my mother - so I wouldn't be her. But the price I paid was that I distanced myself internally.
Gloria Steinem
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the struggle of living one's own life while avoiding the path of a parent, which can lead to emotional distance.

In this quote, Gloria Steinem explores the complex relationship many women have with their mothers and the generational expectations that can shape their identities. She conveys the idea that in an effort to reject her mother's life choices, she inadvertently created a disconnect within herself, highlighting the often painful balance between personal autonomy and familial influence.

Themes

MotherIdentityRelationshipsEmotionLivingDistancing

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be shared during a women's empowerment workshop to illustrate the importance of understanding familial influences.

More from Gloria Steinem

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
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

Similar quotes

And yet, standing behind her son, waiting for the traffic light change, she remembered how in the midst of it all there had been a time when she'd felt a loneliness so deep that once, not so many years ago, having a cavity filled, the dentist's gentle turning of her chin with his soft fingers had felt to her like a tender kindness of almost excruciating depth, and she had swallowed with a groan of longing, tears springing to her eyes.
Elizabeth StroutRead
Sometimes I feel like I don't belong anywhere, & it's gonna take so long for me to get to somewhere, Sometimes I feel so heavy hearted, but I can't explain cuz I'm so guarded. But that's a lonely road to travel, and a heavy load to bear. And it's a long, long way to heaven but I gotta get there Can you send an angel? Can you send me an angel...to guide me.
Alicia KeysRead
She is like all the rest of them. Whether they are seventeen or fortyseven, when they finally come to surrender completely, it's going to be in words.
William FaulknerRead
If we stop believing in a future, if we stop doing things for something else but start doing them for now, some fundamental things change. Retirement becomes less about how much money you can squirrel away now and much more a matter of participating and contributing to your own community now so that they want to take care of you. … We’re going to move into a world where your retirement will be more secure if you’ve made lots of friends with young people rather than collected lots of dollars.
Douglas RushkoffRead
There's a false perception that women in Africa somehow don't love their babies they way we do, don't grieve their loss the way we would. That is simply not true.
Melinda GatesRead
One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.
E. M. ForsterRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.