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Culture of Empathy Builder: Gloria Steinem



WATCH: How men can empathize with women, according to Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinman discussed how men can empathize with women's feelings about body invasion at a public dialogue hosted at Rutgers University on Friday, Sept. 21. 


 

Empathy Quotes

Empathy is the most Revolutionary Emotion - Gloria Steinem  

 

"I want us to organize, to tell the personal stories that create empathy which is the most revolutionary emotion.  The truth of the mater is that hierarchy and violence can't be remedied by more hierarchy and violence. The end doesn't justify the means, the means we choose decide the end we get. The means are the end."  - Gloria Steinem

 

 

 

 

 Empathy is the most radical of human emotions. - Gloria Steinem 

 

 

 

 

From Master Class: Waking Up to Empathy
Gloria Steinem was part of this Master Class and talks about Empathy, Talking Circles and Democracy

 

“Empathy allows us to identify with other people's situations and other people to identify with ours. So I don't think that this human species could have survived without empathy.”

- Gloria Steinem 


 

“Talking Circles seem to be part of all ancient cultures, as far as I know. They clearly are a form that is human and universal. It's an open field for empathy. First of all, it's a circle. It's not a hierarchy. Secondly, it's democratic, everybody gets to speak and everybody listens…. Because as each person speaks, you're learning from and empathizing with another person. After all, we don't learn from sameness, we learn from difference. So by sharing that experience or understanding that experience, we can communicate better.  Regular experience of circles, talking circles, empathy, the ability to express oneself, is fundamental to our humanity, our development, our health. They are not just the basis of personal and communal expression, but the beginning of democracy. I mean, that is where democracy is based.”

- Gloria Steinem 

 

 “I think there is a hunger for talking circles. So some people have them around their kitchen table. Some people have them in a workplace. Some people have family reunions as one of their talking circles. In my own life, I've experienced it especially between and among women.”

- Gloria Steinem 


 

“It is probably certainly more helpful to democratize a culture, for people with more power, to be able to empathize with people with less power.  The liberation movements based on race, sexuality, nation, are trying to deal in a practical way with divisions. That can take all kinds of forms, but I would say the most radical going to  the root form is to empathize with the person in the other country, in the other gender, in the expressing themselves sexually in a different way.  In the other class, up or down, whatever it is.“  
- Gloria Steinem 


 

“Empathy is what allows movements to work together, move together, listen to each other's stories, understand the coalition's we need, the shared purposes we have. It allows us to communicate, to bond, to feel okay in opposing.  It is such a democratizing force. And it is such a force for understanding that what we are feeling is as important as what someone else is feeling, not more, not less, but at least equally important. And that if we act together we can change for everyone.”

- Gloria Steinem 


 



Jane Fonda Another "Radical"

 

"What I learned is, we have to listen to each other, even when we don’t agree, even when we  think we hate each other. We have to listen to each others narratives. Not interrupt defensively, or with hostility, but really try to open our hearts and listen with empathy. 

 

I learned so much from that meeting. It was a very difficult thing to do and it was one of the best things that I ever did in my life. Look what scares you in the face, and try to understand it. Empathy, I have learned, is revolutionary.“ 
Jane Fonda  (Full video)  (Quote video)