Men develop ideas and systems of explanation by absorbing past knowledge and critiquing and superseding it. Women, ignorant of their own history [do] not know what women before them had thought and taught. So generation after generation, they [struggle] for insights others had already had before them, [resulting in] the constant inventing of the wheel.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding and building upon past knowledge to avoid redundancy and struggle.
Gerda Lerner highlights the way in which men often create new ideas and systems by learning from and evolving past understandings, while women may not have the same access to their historical contributions. This lack of awareness can lead to repeated struggles in discovering insights that have been previously established, ultimately suggesting that recognizing and honoring the past is crucial for growth and advancement.
In practice
In a seminar on women's studies, this quote could be used to discuss the need for historical awareness in women's contributions.
Everything that explains the world has in fact explained a world that does not exist, a world in which men are at the center of the human enterprise and women are at the margin "helping' them. Such a world does not exist - never has.
When I started working on women's history about thirty years ago, the field did not exist. People didn't think that women had a history worth knowing.
Honesty with ourselves & others gets us sober, but it is tolerance that keeps us that way.
Whatever final judgment awaits 'Bush v. Gore' in the annals of history, I am certain that the good work and good faith of the U.S. federal judiciary as a whole will continue to sustain public confidence at a level never beyond repair.
So your emotional state really has a lot to do with what you're thinking about and what you're paying attention to.
Anger is a signal that you're distracted by judgmental or punitive thinking, and that some precious need of yours is being ignored.
nobody means to get carried away in mediocrity, but it happens, it happens unless you think about everything you do, unless you make every choice the best one you know how to make.
Give up, renounce the world. Now we are like dogs strayed into a kitchen and eating a piece of meat, looking round in fear lest at any moment some one may come and drive them out. Instead of that, be a king and know you own the world. This never comes until you give it up and it ceases to bind. Give up mentally, if you do not physically. Give up from the heart of your hearts
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