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
Rich cultures, patriarchal cultures, value thin women, like ours; poor ones value fat women. But all patriarchal cultures value weak women. So for women to become physically strong is very profound.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the societal standards imposed on women regarding their bodies and strength in different cultures.
Gloria Steinem's quote explores the contrasting values assigned to women based on cultural backgrounds and economic status. While affluent patriarchal societies tend to idealize thinness, economically challenged cultures often favor larger women. Despite these varying standards, a common theme across all patriarchal cultures is the preference for weak women. Steinem emphasizes that achieving physical strength among women represents a significant and empowering shift against these ingrained societal norms, suggesting that strength can become a powerful statement of independence and defiance against patriarchal expectations.
Themes
WomenStrengthPatriarchyCultureEmpowerment
In practice
Example use cases
During a women's empowerment conference, this quote can inspire a discussion on body image and societal expectations.
More from Gloria Steinem
All quotes →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
I don't hold myself out as a role model. I don't believe that everyone should make the same choices; that everyone has to want to be a CEO, or everyone should want to be a work-at-home mother. I want everyone to be able to choose. But I want us to be able to choose unencumbered by gender choosing for us.
Sheryl SandbergRead
If you're a girl and you don't fit the very specific vision of what a girl should be, which is always from a man's perspective, then you're a little bit at a loss.
Ellen PageRead
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, 'It's a girl.'
Shirley ChisholmRead
...a box where she was expected to be sweet and sensitive (but not oversensitive); a box for young and pretty girls who were not as bright or powerful as their boyfriends. A box for people who were not forces to be reckoned with.
E. LockhartRead
Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.
Erica JongRead
They say that women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.
Clare Boothe LuceRead