For thousands of years, men have written history, so it seems to me that most of what we've read is from the male point of view.
Stacy SchiffRead
Power has for so long been a male construct that it distorted the shape of the first women who tried it on, only to find themselves in a sort of straitjacket.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on how traditional notions of power have constrained women's identities and roles.
Stacy Schiff's quote critiques the historical male dominance in power structures, suggesting that when women attempted to embrace these roles, they were often constrained by societal expectations and norms. The metaphor of a 'straitjacket' emphasizes the restrictive nature of these constructs, indicating that rather than empowering women, traditional power has limited their true identities and potential.
Themes
PowerWomenSocietyRestrictionsIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
During a women's empowerment seminar to discuss the challenges women face in leadership roles.
More from Stacy Schiff
All quotes →And in the absence of facts, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history.
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It has always been preferable to attribute a woman's success to her beauty rather than to her brains, to reduce her to the sum of her sex life.
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Cleopatra had one great advantage. She lived at a time when female sovereigns were not anomalies. And when women enjoyed rights they would not again enjoy for another 2,000 years. You could call them early feminists, if I may use a dirty word.
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Women enjoyed rights in Egypt they would not again enjoy for more than 2,000 years. They owned ships, ran vineyards, filed lawsuits, practiced medicine. Their husbands supported them after divorce. Their power was unprecedented.
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A woman can never be too rich or too thin, but until very, very recently, she could be too powerful, for which - if she wasn't smart enough to camouflage herself - she generally paid the price.
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