Part of the reason images of women in positions of authority are marked by their gender is that the very notion of authority is associated with maleness.

any criticism heard secondhand sounds worse than it would face to face. Words spoken out of our presence strike us as more powerful, just as people we know only by reputation seem larger than life.

Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone.

Critiquing relieves you of the responsibility of doing integrative thinking.

It's our tendency to approach every problem as if it were a fight between two sides. We see it in headlines that are always using metaphors for war. It's a general atmosphere of animosity and contention that has taken over our public discourse.

Treating people the same is not equal treatment if they are not the same.

Some days you just want to get dressed and go about your business. But if you're a woman, you can't, because there is no unmarked woman.