Not decades or centuries but millennia have passed in the evolving dialogue between the feminine and masculine. Here, in tribute to women’s commitment to breaking the glass ceiling for the benefit of all, we’ve drawn together some keenly representative passages in the conversation that enduringly engages poets, philosophers, politicians, actors, musicians, heroes, heroines, ordinary women and men, of all ages, everywhere.
If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.
—Hillary R. Clinton
What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren’t supposed to work if they had families. What were they going to do when the children are grown—watch the raindrops coming down the windowpane?
—Jackie Kennedy
Through our mothers, the culture gave us mixed messages: No voy a dejar que ningún pelado desgraciado maltrate a mis hijos. And in the next breath it would say, La mujer tiene que hacer lo que le diga el hombre. Which was it to be—strong or submissive, rebellious or conforming?
—Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Borderlands
Think you I am no stronger than my sex,
Being so father’d and so husbanded?
—Portia, in Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
