The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end. Its time seems to have nearly run its courseโit no longer serves the needs of men or women and in its inextricable linkage to militarism, hierarchy, and racism it threatens the very existence of life on earth. What will come after, what kind of structure will be the foundation for alternate forms of social organization we cannot yet know. We are living in an age of unprecedented transformation. We are in the process of becoming.
Gerda LernerBlack people cannot and will not become integrated into American society on any terms but those of self-determination and autonomy.
Gerda LernerThe main thing history can teach us is that human actions have consequences, and that certain choices, once made, cannot be undone.
Gerda LernerLong-term commitment to an intimate relationship with one person of whatever sex is an essential need that people have in order to breed the qualities out of which nurturing thought can rise.
Gerda LernerMen 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 them, [resulting in] the constant inventing of the wheel.
Gerda Lerner