Estelle Freedman Quotes

United States, Historian
1947

Estelle Freedman is an American historian. She is the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History at Stanford University She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College in 1969 and her Master of Arts and PhD in history from Columbia University. She has taught at Stanford University since 1976 and is a co-founder of the Program in Feminist Studies.

Feminism is a belief that although women and men are inherently of equal worth, most societies privilege men as a group. As a result, social movements are necessary to achieve political equality between women and men, with the understanding that gender always intersects with other social hierarchies.

Estelle Freedman
- Achieve
- Result
- Feminism
...we should distinguish carefully between women's and feminist institutions, remain aware of the costs of racial exclusiveness, and avoid romanticizing the past.

Estelle Freedman

To quell the women’s revolt, the British first sent police, then soldiers, and finally even the Boy Scouts.

Estelle Freedman
- Police
- Soldiers
- British
I use “equal worth” rather than equality because the latter term often assumes that men’s historical experience—whether economic, political, or sexual—is the standard to which women should aspire.

Estelle Freedman
We will ask two central questions throughout this course: 1. What difference does gender make? 2. For which women does it make a difference? Which women?

Estelle Freedman
- Women
- Difference
- Gender