While men represent powerful activity as assertion and aggression, women in contrast portray acts of nurturance as acts of strength.

While an ethic of justice proceeds from the premise of equality—that everyone should be treated the same—an ethic of care rests on the premise of nonviolence—that no one should be hurt.

The blind willingness to sacrifice people to truth, however, has always been the danger of an ethics abstracted from life.

While men represent powerful activity as assertion and aggression, women in contrast portray acts of nurturance as acts of strength.

For a man to be a man, did he have to be a soldier, or at least prepare himself for war? For a woman to be a woman, did she have to be a mother, or at least prepare herself to raise children? Soldiers and mothers were the sacrificial couple, honored by statues in the park, lauded for their willingness to give their lives to others.

The hardest times for me were not when people challenged what I said, but when I felt my voice was not heard.

I used to tell women graduate students, half-seriously, that the role of slightly rebellious daughter was one of the better roles for women living in patriarchy.