When women can support themselves, have entry to all the trades and professions, with a house of their own over their heads and a bank account, they will own their bodies and be dictators in the social realm.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions; that Bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brains of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of *Thus sayeth the Lord.*
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that liberation comes from recognizing that human-made institutions and doctrines are not inherently divine.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton argues that many traditional authorities, such as governments and religions, are constructs created by humans. By acknowledging this fact, women can free themselves from oppression tied to these constructs, which often claim divine legitimacy. The quote emphasizes empowerment through understanding and critically examining societal norms and beliefs.
Themes
WomenOppressionEmpowermentReligionGovernmentUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a women's rights speech to emphasize the need for self-empowerment.
More from Elizabeth Cady Stanton
All quotes →To live for a principle, for the triumph of some reform by which all mankind are to be lifted up to be wedded to an idea may be, after all, the holiest and happiest of marriages.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body... is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.
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Only those who have lived all their lives under the dark clouds of vague, undefined fears can appreciate the joy of a doubting soul suddenly born into the kingdom of reason and free thought.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
We demand in the Reconstruction suffrage for all the citizens of the Republic. I would not talk of Negroes or women, but of citizens.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
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