The home is the centre and circumference, the start and the finish, of most of our lives.
Charlotte Perkins GilmanRead
Woman" in the abstract is young, and, we assume, charming. As they get older they pass off the stage, somehow, into private ownership mostly, or out of it altogether.
Interpretation
The quote critiques societal perceptions of women as they age, emphasizing their diminishing visibility and value in public life.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's quote reflects on the societal tendency to idealize women in their youth while neglecting their experiences and contributions as they age. It points out how women often become less visible and valued in public spaces as they grow older, suggesting a problematic view of womanhood that confines women to private, domestic roles instead of recognizing their ongoing worth in society.
In practice
This quote could be used in a women's rights discussion to illustrate societal biases.
The home is the centre and circumference, the start and the finish, of most of our lives.
To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.
We all need one another; much and often. Just as every human creature needs a place to be alone in, a sacred, private "home" of his own, so all human creatures need a place to be together in, from the two who can show each other their souls uninterruptedly, to the largest throng that can throb and stir in unison.
Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.
When the mother of the race is free, we shall have a better world, by the easy right of birth and by the calm, slow, friendly forces of evolution.
The children in this country are the one center and focus of all our thoughts. Every step of our advance is always considered in its effect on them-on the race. You see, we are MOTHERS, she repeated, as if in that she had said it all.
Women want mediocre men, and men are working to be as mediocre as possible.
In fact, there is perhaps only one human being in a thousand who is passionately interested in his job for the job's sake. The difference is that if that one person in a thousand is a man, we say, simply, that he is passionately keen on his job; if she is a woman, we say she is a freak.
All too often, girls are ignored because their challenges aren't thought to be as serious as those faced by boys.
One of the things we learn in movies directed by men is what the 'fantasy woman' is. What we learn in movies directed by women is what real women are about. I don't think that men see things wrong and women right, just that we do see things differently.
We still live in a world in which a significant fraction of people, including women, believe that a woman belongs and wants to belong exclusively in the home.
While men represent powerful activity as assertion and aggression, women in contrast portray acts of nurturance as acts of strength.
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