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Gender Roles Quotes

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Gender Roles Quotes

“...debe insistirse continuamente en que «femenino» y «masculino» no son entidades en sí mismas; no son figuras arquetípicas de una diferenciación absoluta con campos de aplicación fijos y predeterminados. Son términos de una relación continua, que toman su significado el uno del otro: Por ejemplo, conteniendo y emergiendo, recibiendo y actuado, conservando y dinamizando; la base y su diferenciación, el todo y su parte.”

GenderMythologyGender RolesComparative Religion
Book:The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image
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“Fashionable Beard” I asked my friend, sporting a fashionable beard, with playful curiosity: ‘Has your beard brought you new fans?’ ‘You have no idea how much it has!’ he laughed, eyes gleaming with irony. ‘Do you wonder why people can’t see you clearly without it?’ I probed. He smiled and said, ‘This beard reminds me daily— people refuse to face the bare truth. They only look at things when they’re dressed up in something— a mask, a trend, a distraction. But never just as they are.”

MenLooksGenderAttractionMasculinityGender RolesSuperficialityAppearancesArabic LiteratureBeards
Book:سرطان في كل مكان [Cancer Everywhere]
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“The male-unless-otherwise-indicated approach to research seems to have infected all sorts of ethnographic fields. Cave paintings, for example, are often of game animals and so researchers have assumed they were done by men - the hunters. But new analysis of handprints that appear alongside such paintings in cave sites in France and Spain has suggested that the majority were actually done by women.”

MenWomenGender RolesPaintings
Book:Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
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“Misogyny was born of fear of women. It spawned the ideology of male superiority. But this was ideology, not statement of fact; as such, it could not be confirmed, but was open to constant doubt. Male status was not immutable. Myths of matriarchies and Amazons societies showed female dominance. Three of the eleven extant comedies of Aristophanes show women in successful opposition to men. ... These were the nightmares of victors: that someday the vanquished would arise and treat their ex-masters as they themselves had been treated.”

MenWomenFeminismGenderGender RolesAncient GreeceWomen S Studies
Author:Sarah B. Ponderous
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“Don’t we see that men’s rightful task is to go out to work and wear themselves out trying to accumulate wealth, as though they were our factors or stewards, so that we can remain at home like the lady of the house directing their work and enjoying the profit of their labors? That, if you like, is the reason why men are naturally stronger and more robust than us — they need to be, so they can put up with the hard labor they must endure in our service.”

MenWomenGender RolesServitudeChivalryMisandryBreadwinnerServanthoodProviderChivalrousCongenitalGender Assumptions
Author:Moderata Fonte
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“And even though I knew in my head there’s nothing a man can do that a woman can’t, I also knew in my heart we can’t help doing it for different reasons. And just like a man will never understand exactly how a woman feels when she has a baby, or an orgasm, or the reasons why she’ll fight so hard to be loved, a woman can’t know in what way a man satisfies himself, what question he answers for himself, when he looks right at death.”

MenWomenGender Roles
Book:Cowboys Are My Weakness
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“Criticism of the traditional male role is often mistaken for criticism of men themselves. When this happens, men understandably become defensive, push away any discussion of gender, and are unable to hear women's appeals for change. Any gender-role discussion quickly becomes a women's problem, and the issue is repressed by men who feel unjustly accused, and by women who are afraid of men's disapproval and anger.”

MenWomenCommunicationGenderGender RolesGender StereotypesDefensiveness
Book:Experiences in Relatedness: Groupwork and the Person-Centred Approach
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“Whether they regard themselves as pro- or antifeminist, most women want men to do more of the emotional work in relationships. And most men, even those who wholeheartedly support gender equality in the workforce, still believe that emotional work is female labor. Most men continue to uphold the sexist decree that emotions have no place in the work world and that emotional labor at home should be done by females.”

MenFeelingsWorkFeminismEmotionsFeministGenderWorking TogetherSexismWork EthicMasculinityFemininityGender EqualityGender RolesSexistGender StereotypesGender Differences
Author:Bell Hooks
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“Dissociation from the body and emotions – numbness – is a basic requirement of the male ideal. Hardy and Hough point out that the patriarchal culture’s influence is so strong on this point that it interferes with men ever recognizing that pain is a normal indicator of a problem. And as the pain or discomfort increases, men are forced to choose between two problematic alternatives: If I admit I’m sick then I must do something about it. That may entail seeing a doctor which implies I’m weak, not in control of myself, not tough enough. However, if I don’t get help, I’ll get sicker and more vulnerable, really helpless”

MenPatriarchyDissociationGender RolesGender Role
Book:Codependency & Men
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“Marginalised masculinities describes a group of men who are marginalised and excluded from all the benefits of male privilege because of race or class. For example, although working-class men may embody a kind of toughness and stoicism that is prized, they do not benefit as greatly from that privilege as those in the middle and upper classes do. ... 'working-class men are the male equivalent of the "dumb blond" - endowed with physical virtues but problematized by intellectual shortcomings'.”

ClassGenderWorking ClassMasculinityGender RolesGender StereotypesGender Norms
Book:Counselling Skills for Working with Gender Diversity and Identity
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“As a girl, it had been firmly set down that one ought never speak until one was spoken to, and when one did, one ought not speak of anything that might provoke or worry. One referred to the limb of the table, not the leg, the white meat on the chicken, not the breast. Good manners were the foundations of civilization. One knew precisely with whom one sat in a room based entirely on how well they behaved, and in what manner. Forks and knives were placed at the ten-twenty on one's plate when one was finished eating, One ought to walk straight and keep one's hands to oneself when one s poke, least one be taken for an Italian or Jew. A woman was meant to tend a child, a garden, or a conversation. A woman ought to know how to mind the temperature in a room, adding a little heat in a well-timed question, or cool a warm temper with the suggestion of another drink, a bowl of nuts, and a smile. What Kitty had learned at Miss Porter's School---handed down from Sarah Porter through the spinsters teaching there, themselves the sisters of Yale men who handed down the great words, Truth. Verity. Honor--was that your brothers and your husbands and your sons will lead, and you will tend., You will watch and suggest, guide and protect. You will carry the torch forward, and all to the good. There was the world. And one fixed an eye keenly on it. One learned its history; one understood the causes of its wars. One debated and, gradually, a picture emerged of mankind over the centuries; on understood the difference between what was good and what was right. On understood that men could be led to evil, against the judgment of their better selves. Debauchery. Poverty of spirit. This was the explanation for so many unfortunate ills--slavery, for instance. The was the reason. Men, individual men, were not at fault. They had to be taught. Led. Shown by example what was best. Unfairness, unkindness could be addressed. Queitly. Patiently.. Without a lot of noisy attention. Noise was for the poorly bred. If one worried, if one were afraid, if one doubted--one kept it to oneself. One looked for the good, and one found it. The woman found it, the woman pointed it out, and the man tucked it in his pocket, heartened. These were the rules.”

AttitudeMannersEtiquetteGender Roles
Book:The Guest Book
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“Did the Ancient Hainish postulate that continuous sexual capacity and organized social aggression, neither of which are attributes of any mammal but man, are cause and effect? Or, like Tumass Song Angot, did they consider war to be a purely masculine displacement-activity, a vast Rape, and therefore in their experiment eliminate the masculinity that rapes and the femineity that is Raped? God knows.”

WarSexScience FictionGenderSexualityGender RolesSocial CommentarySpeculative FictionViolence In Society
Book:The Left Hand of Darkness
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“Men are never selfish. They’re smart. Women are always selfish. You want to be single? Selfish. You’re a wife and mother and do anything other than dote on your husband and children? Selfish. I want you and your sisters to learn to take that word as a compliment. Anyone who says that to you is trying to discourage you from doing what you want. That’s how you know you’re doing something right.”

FeminismIdentityEmpowermentIndependenceSelf DeterminationDefianceGender RolesSocial CommentaryDouble StandardsCritique Of Society
Book:Play Nice
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“What is a woman's place in this modern world? Jasnah Kholin's words read. I rebel against this question, though so many of my peers ask it. The inherent bias in the inquiry seems invisible to so many of them. They consider themselves progressive because they are willing to challenge many of the assumptions of the past. They ignore the greater assumption--that a 'place' for women must be defined and set forth to begin with. Half of the population must somehow be reduced to the role arrived at by a single conversation. No matter how broad that role is, it will be--by-nature--a reduction from the infinite variety that is womanhood. I say that there is no role for women--there is, instead, a role for each woman, and she must make it for herself. For some, it will be the role of scholar; for others, it will be the role of wife. For others, it will be both. For yet others, it will be neither. Do not mistake me in assuming I value one woman's role above another. My point is not to stratify our society--we have done that far to well already--my point is to diversify our discourse. A woman's strength should not be in her role, whatever she chooses it to be, but in the power to choose that role. It is amazing to me that I even have to make this point, as I see it as the very foundation of our conversation.”

PoliticsWomenFreedomWomanChoiceFree WillSexismWomanhoodScholarshipGender RolesPreconceptionsPhilosphy
Book:Words of Radiance
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“A Flock of Geese" She often wondered about the inexplicable deep sorrow that she feels every time she sees a flock of geese flying in the sky … Do the flying geese remind her that she has wasted her life stuck in the trivialities of daily life? Or perhaps the flying birds remind her that she’s lost her ability to fly? She thinks at times in sadness how she wasted the years of her life like a naïve bride dreaming about the ideal groom... A bride planning the minutest details of her wedding, not realizing, until her wings were clipped, that the wedding, the groom, and the bride are roles and illusions created by society to counter the dangers of all those who wish to fly; those who dream about creating new worlds instead of getting hanged or strangulated in a world created on their behalf by others … As she hears the honking of another passing flock of geese flying over her head as did the most beautiful years of her life the birds awaken in her that uncontrollable itch to depart to refuse the illusion of settling and stability The illusion of the wedding and the groom The illusion of all the wedding invitees Who spend an entire night dancing, cheering, and celebrating the clipping of her wings… [Original poem published in Arabic on December 14, 2023 at ahewar.org]” ― Louis Yako”

FreedomSocietySocial JusticePrisonWomen EmpowermentGender EqualityGender RolesTraditionsArabic PoetryGender Studies
Author:Louis Yako
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“It seemed to me a lot of people had marrying on the mind in Louisiana. As if there was something like an unfinished sentence about a woman of 19 traveling alone. Perhaps, in the south, it was just hard to imagine that, “A woman of 19 travels alone.” was a complete sentence.”

MarriageIndependenceMarriage QuotesGender RolesIndependence QuotesIndependent WomenThe SouthGender Quotes
Book:Can't Stop the Sunrise: Adventures in Healing, Confronting Corruption & the Journey to Institutional Reform
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“I was angry that Harry wasn't a woman. That's still the problem. He hasn't been trained since before he could speak to intuit the needs of others. He hasn't been shown how to push against the pulsing muscle of his heart to make room for everyone who needs a space in it. When he does try I say his attempts are inadequate. I don't accept his limitations. But he doesn't admit he has them. He doesn't do what I would do. He doesn't apologize for his presence, take up as little room as possible. Every time he pretends to step up but doesn't and every time I'm disappointed. But neither of us explains and neither of us changes. We used to say thank you and please. We used to try to be what the other one needed and wanted. I thought we were special. I thought we wouldn't take each other for granted...”

CouplesGender RolesGender Stereotypes
Book:When I Ran Away
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“It is funny,’ she said, ‘That even after all this time, you still believe you should be rewarded, just because you have been obedient. I thought you would have learned that lesson in your father’s halls. None shrank and simpered as you did, and yet the great Helios stepped on you all the faster, because you were already crouched at his feet.’ She was leaning forward, her golden hair loose, embroidering the sheets around her. ‘Let me tell you the truth about Helios and all the rest. They do not care if you are good. They barely care if you are wicked. The only thing that makes them listen is power.”

FictionWomens RightsGreek MythologyWitchcraftGender EqualityGender RolesCirceSpells And Witchcraft
Book:Circe
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“Suppose a researcher were to tap you on the shoulder and ask you to write down what, according to cultural lore, males and females are like. Would you stare at the researcher blankly and exclaim ‘But what can you mean? Every person is a unique, multifaceted, sometimes even contradictory individual, and with such an astonishing range of personality traits within each sex, and across contexts, social class, age, experience, educational level, sexuality and ethnicity, it would be pointless and meaningless to attempt to pigeonhole such rich complexity and variability into two crude stereotypes’? No. You’d pick up your pencil and start writing.”

ChildrenSexPsychologyGenderSexismGender RolesChildren S Play
Author:Jacky Kilvington, Ali Wood
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“To borrow a metaphor from the kitchen sink… Children form strong opinions easily. They soak up information from their parents, school, and the media, and repeat it back to the world. So when you don’t look or act like what everyone has been told is the norm, you get proverbially barfed on a lot.”

ChildrenChildhoodGenderChildGender EqualityGender RolesGender IdentityGender StereotypesGender Inequality
Book:Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir
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“In a study of children's toy and television preferences, researchers Isabelle Cherney and Kamala London found that, when left alone, half of boys ages five through thirteen picked "girl" and "boy" toys equally - until they thought they were being watched. They were especially concerned about what their fathers would think if they saw them. Over time, boys' interests in toys and media become more rigidly masculinized and codified, whereas girls' stay relatively open ended and flexible.”

ChildrenGender RolesGender Norms
Book:Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
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“Given our socialization into dependency, women are also poor risk takers. (...) We avoid new situations, job changes, moves to different parts of the country. Women are afraid that if they should make a mistake, or do "the wrong thing", they'll be punished. Women are less confident than men in their ability to make judgments, and in relationships will often hand over the decision-making duties to their mates, a situation which only ensures that they will become less confident in their powers of judgment as time goes by. Most shockingly of all, women are less likely than men to fulfill their intellectual potential. (...) In fact, as women proceed into adulthood, they get lower and lower scores on "total intelligence", owing to the fact that they tend to use their intelligence less and less the longer they're away from school. Other studies show that the intellect's ability to function may actually be impaired by dependent personality traits. (...) Confidence and self-esteem are primary issues in women's difficulties with achievement. Lack of confidence leads us into the dark waters of envy. (...) envy must be recognized, seen, and fully comprehended; it can too easily be used as a cover-up for something that is far mroe crucial to women's independence - our own inner feelings of incompetence. These must be dealt with - directly - if we are ever to achieve confidence and strength.”

FearWomenFeminismSelf EsteemSelf ConfidencePatriarchyGender RolesMale PrivilegeSocietal ConstructsPsychological TraumaCinderella ComplexEmotional Dependence
Book:The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence
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“For every woman you know who has been given substandard treatment by her parents, used by her friend or boyfriend, abused by her husband, discriminated by her employers and ridiculed by society, I know a man who has been burdened with family responsibility since childhood, humiliated by his girlfriend, bullied by his employers, pushed by society and harassed by his wife. Everybody is fighting their own battle.”

MankindWomanhoodGender EqualityFemale EmpowermentGender RolesFemale ProtagonistGender StereotypesGender InequalityMalevolenceFemale LiberationGender DifferencesMale Female RelationshipsSanjeev HimachaliMale Thinking
Author:Sanjeev Himachali
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“Father Jakob mentioned to her that military men took it personally when women at home were assaulted. They were away fighting for their country and they believed the men left behind had an obligation to take care of and protect the women on the homefront. Maeve knew from experience women mostly had to take care of themselves.”

DeathHistoryMurderKillingDominationGender RolesPiHistorical MysteriesGang WarfareMentally Abusive
Book:Bangtails, Grifters, and a Liar's Kiss
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“My father came first," says a Missouri painter who consistently faces a work slump whenever she commits herself to submitting paintings for a show. "My mother was defined by him. If she behaved well he would love her, buy her presents, and take care of her - she was a queen. He did take care of her. She behaved, she ran the house. He bought her presents all the time." "Was she smart?" I asked. "I don't know," the woman replied. "I think she may have been, once. She stopped thinking." One reason Mother remains shadowy is that she was intimidated by the forceful, vivid personality of her husband. The peacemaker, a kind of half-person who chooses to tag along safely behind her husband, Mother is protected from the more abrasive aspects of life in the world. Huge fights, open power struggles - these were not characteristic of the girl's relationship with her elusive mother. (...) Mother was there (...). But she was also not there. (...) Father is active; Mother is passive. Father is able to rely on himself; Mother is helpless and dependent.”

WomenFeministMothersPatriarchyGender RolesMothers And DaughtersSocietal ConstructsCinderella ComplexEmotional DependenceFinancial Dependence
Book:The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence
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“When I was assigned the color blue, I was assigned how I should live. I was assigned a specific type of clothes, toys, and interests. Each individual has different capabilities and hence different interests. Imagine what would happen if someone with no hands would be asked to draw? He might achieve it somehow, but it would be an excruciating and tiring process. This is what happens when we develop a confident expectation from either Gender.”

InspirationalMotivationalSocietyGender RolesParadigm ShiftNorms
Book:Know 'YOUR' Norms
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“Most of us live a life of mediocrity. We spend our lives doing what we are expected to do. In the early stages of our lives, we try to settle in a job. Then we look for a life partner. After forty, we try to work towards our retirement funds. This is the story of the lives of most of the people around us. There might be little variances, but for the most part, the story is the same.”

InspirationSocietyGender RolesParadigm ShiftNormsMotivaion
Book:Know 'YOUR' Norms
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