As the mother of a son, I do not accept that alienation from me is necessary for his discovery of himself. As a woman, I will not cooperate in demeaning womanly things so that he can be proud to be a man. I like to think the women in my son's future are counting on me.

The risk for a woman who considers her helpless children her "job" is that the children's growth toward self-sufficiency may be experienced as a refutation of the mother's indispensability, and she may unconsciously sabotage their growth as a result.

Much is made of the accelerating brutality of young people's crimes, but rarely does our concern for dangerous children translateinto concern for children in danger. We fail to make the connection between the use of force on children themselves, and violent antisocial behavior, or the connection between watching father batter mother and the child deducing a link between violence and masculinity.

Control is a big issue when you're sick. It's the first thing you lose - other losses come later.

Friends seem to be like aspirin; we don't really know why they make a sick person feel better, but they do.

What I often say to people who are quick to say I’m not a feminist is if you think you’re not a feminist, give it all back.

Housework is the only activity at which men are allowed to be consistently inept because they are thought to be so competent at everything else.