When women and men can shed an equal quantity of tears in public, that's when we'll have equal power.
Interpretation
Emotional expression should not be limited by gender, and true equality will be achieved when both men and women can express vulnerability openly.
This quote by Madeleine M. Kunin emphasizes the importance of emotional equality between genders. It suggests that societal norms around gender roles have restricted emotional expression, leading to imbalances in power dynamics. When both men and women can freely express their emotions, including sadness, it indicates a cultural shift towards genuine equality, where no gender feels constrained by stereotypes about how they should behave or feel.
In practice
In a seminar discussing gender roles, this quote illustrates the need for emotional freedom for all genders.
It's time for male leaders to not only ask for binders of qualified women, but to re-write the definition of 'qualified.' The best man for the job, may in fact, be a woman, whose biography is not traditional, but is rich with experiences and skills that are not necessarily learned either in school or on the job.
It's time for women to wake up, to use the power of the vote, to honor the suffragists who chained themselves to the White House fence so that women could vote.
Any smart executive understands that to find the best talent she has to explore new territory that lies beyond familiar geography. That applies not only to gender, but also to race, religion, background and age.
What works for a man, still does not work for a woman - both in terms of how they see themselves and how we see them.
Legislative proposals that would enable an employer to determine whether or not a woman's insurance would cover the cost of birth control strikes women as particularly bizarre. Is the boss going to take care of the children that are conceived accidentally? Stop treating us like children. Women are grown ups.
What some men don't understand is that by opposing policies to reduce violence, promote equal pay and universal healthcare and voting to limit access to contraception and legal abortion, they are relegating women to another century, a time when men ruled exclusively and women were considered property and had to be guided by a firm masculine hand.
When you grow up as a girl, the world tells you the things that you are supposed to be: emotional, loving, beautiful, wanted. And then when you are those things, the world tells you they are inferior: illogical, weak, vain, empty.
It is probable that both in life and in art the values of a woman are not the values of a man.
It's really important for boys to see that girls take up half of the planet - which we do.
I can't say that the college-bred woman is the most contented woman. The broader her mind the more she understands the unequal conditions between men and women, the more she chafes under a government that tolerates it.
Aggressive and hard-charging women violate unwritten rules about acceptable social conduct. Men are continually applauded for being ambitious and powerful and successful, but women who display these same traits often pay a social penalty. Female accomplishments come at a cost.
The concern was that if a woman was doing gender equality, her chances of making it to tenure in the law school were diminished. It was considered frivolous.
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