Arrogance Quote by Gerda Lerner
““perhaps the greatest challenge to thinking women is the challenge to move from the desire for safety and approval to the most "unfeminine" quality of all -- that of intllectual arrogance, the supreme hubris which asserts to itself the right to reorder the world. The Hubris of the god makers, the hubris of the male-system builders.””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Creation of Patriarchy, 1990
Intellectual arrogance pushes women to seek power, challenging safety and approval norms.
In simple terms: Women must confront hubris to achieve true intellectual freedom.
Key Takeaway
Challenge safety for intellectual growth.
Themes
gender
power
intellectualism
hubris
Mood
critical
provocative
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- academic research
- activism
- policy making
- education reform
Key Concepts
feminist theory
social critique
ego
systemic oppression
Questions to Reflect On
- What does “unfeminine” mean in this context?
- How can we balance confidence with humility?
A Different Perspective
Hubris can alienate allies.
![“Men develop ideas and systems of explanation by absorbing past knowledge and critiquing and superseding it. Women, ignorant of their own history [do] not know what women before them had thought and taught. So generation after generation, they [struggle] for insights others had already had before…” quote by Gerda Lerner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/01f/gerda-lerner-28685_constant_men-develop-ideas-and-systems-of-explana_1757578.jpg)
![“Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so extraordinary a series of gradations as this [step by step, from humans to apes to monkeys to lemurs] - leading us insensibly from the crown and summit of the animal creation down to creatures, from which there is but a step, as it seems, to the…” quote by Thomas Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f0b/thomas-huxley-1183_animal_perhaps-no-order-of-mammals-presents-us_3051.jpg)
