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
I want us to organize, to tell the personal stories that create empathy, which is the most revolutionary emotion. The truth of the mater is that hierarchy and violence can't be remedied by more hierarchy and violence. The end doesn't justify the means, the means we choose decide the end we get. The means are the end.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Empathy and storytelling are essential for creating understanding and change, rather than relying on hierarchy and violence.
In this quote, Gloria Steinem emphasizes the importance of personal storytelling as a means to foster empathy, which she regards as a powerful catalyst for revolutionary change. She argues that oppressive structures cannot be resolved through more oppression, and instead, it is the methods we choose that ultimately define the outcomes we achieve, highlighting the intrinsic connection between means and ends in social movements.
Themes
EmpathyStorytellingChangeViolenceHierarchyRevolution
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about social justice movements.
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.
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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
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