Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Gloria Steinem

Quote by Gloria Steinem

“God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there’s no turning back. Instead of trying to fit women into existing middle-class professions or working-class theories, these radical feminist groups assumed that women’s experience could be the root of theory. Whether at speak-outs or consciousness-raising groups, “talking circles” or public hearings, the essential idea was: Tell your personal truth, listen to other women’s stories, see what themes are shared, and discover that the personal is political.”

Quote by Gloria Steinem

Book:Doing Sixty & Seventy
Create image

Work

Doing Sixty & Seventy

This book delves into the intricacies of the fields of sixty and seventy, providing a thorough exploration of the necessary skills and strategies. It serves as a valuable resource for those looking to enhance their expertise and understanding in these areas. more

Author

Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem

Gloria Steinem is an American journalist and social activist, renowned for her leadership in the women's rights movement. Born on March 25, 1934, she was one of the founding editors of Ms. magazine and played a pivotal role in the women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Steinem's work has covered a wide range of issues from gender equality to environmental justice. more

You May Also Like

“I’m not sure feminism should require an adjective. Believing in the full social, political, and economic quality of women, which is what the dictionary says “feminism” means, is enough to make a revolution in itself. But if I had to choose only one adjective, I still would opt for radical feminist. I know our adversaries keep equating that word with violent or man-hating, crazy or extremist—though being a plain vanilla feminist doesn’t keep one safe from such epithets either. Neither does saying, “I’m not a feminist, but.…” Nonetheless, radical seems an honest indication of the fundamental change we have in mind: the false division of human nature into “feminine” and “masculine” is the root of all other divisions into subject and object, active and passive, and—the beginning of hierarchy.”

FeminismWomen S RightsEssaysWomen S LiberationRadical Feminism
Book:Doing Sixty & Seventy
Create image

“I used to indulge in magical thinking when problems seemed insurmountable. Often, this focused on men, for they seemed to be the only ones with power to intercede with the gods. Now it has been so long since I fantasized a magical rescue that I can barely remember the intensity of that longing. Instead, I feel my own strength, take pleasure in the company of friends, male and female, who are mortals. I no longer believe in gods, except those in each of us.”

FeminismWomen S RightsEssaysWomen S LiberationRadical Feminism
Book:Doing Sixty & Seventy
Create image

“We understand that being able to help dependent children find what they need can be a gift in itself. Why shouldn’t we feel the same about the other end of life? Why shouldn’t the equally natural needs of age be an opportunity for others to give? Why indeed? Now I wonder if women’s fear of dependency doesn’t stem from being too much depended upon. Perhaps if we equalize the giving of care—with men, with society—this will bring a new freedom to receive.”

FeminismWomen S RightsEssaysWomen S LiberationRadical Feminism
Book:Doing Sixty & Seventy
Create image

“Now I look at artificial boundaries—lines that can stop no current of air or drought or polluted river—and mourn the violence lavished on defending them. Long ago, in times suspiciously set aside as “prehistory,” we were mostly nomadic peoples who claimed nothing but crisscrossing migratory paths. Cultures were the richest where different peoples and paths were most intermingled. We’re still a nomadic species; indeed, we move and travel on this earth more than ever before. Yet we insist on the destructive fiction of nationalism, one that becomes even more dangerous when it joins with religions that try to create nationalistic gods.”

FeminismWomen S RightsEssaysWomen S LiberationRadical Feminism
Book:Doing Sixty & Seventy
Create image

“As a group who can never afford the expensive fiction of having a nation—and whose bodies suffer from nationalism by being used as its means of reproduction—women of all races and cultures may be the most motivated to ask: How can we create a future beyond nationalism? After all, it has been around for less than five percent of humanity’s history. We know we have had more migratory and communal ways of sharing this Spaceship Earth. There could be again.”

FeminismWomen S RightsEssaysWomen S LiberationRadical Feminism
Book:Doing Sixty & Seventy
Create image

“It's tempting to base a woman's evil on the abuse of a man or the death of a child, because they are, unfortunately, relatable and understandable motivations. However, insisting that women can only be evil once violence has been done to them robs them of agency and puts them on an unrealistic, restrictive pedestal as literary and critical figures.”

FeminismSexismMisogynyWriting ProcessCharacter BuildingFemale Characters
Book:Let Her Be Evil
Create image

“Isn't it wild the way our puritanical culture represses women's love of their own bodies, their discovery and the joy of their sexual experiences? All the things that my kid should be able to naturally be, she is going to have to defend. She is going to have to become skilled as dismantling the information that comes in, sifting through it the noise and the human collision, and not allowing it to reshape her in the image of the distorted sexist lens of our culture.”

FeminismFeministSexism
Book:Here We Are
Create image

“As an awake man, I need to acknowledge that feminism benefits me. Feminism seeks to dismantle all gender stereotypes. By redefining what it means to be a 'woman,' feminism also redefines what is means to be a 'man.' And to live in a world where men are encouraged to express their full range of emotions, where they are encouraged to be their own unique selves without being anchored down to some narrow, societal definition of 'masculinity'? Count. Me. In.”

FeminismFeministSexism
Book:Here We Are
Create image